Assessment of placental perfusion and oxygenation using ASL and QSM

Active Research Project
Investigator(s): 
Zungho Wesley Zun, Ph.D.
Related Institute: 
Last Updated: 
June 16, 2022

In the management and treatment of pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction (FGR) and preeclampsia (PE) due to placental insufficiency, early and reliable detection is critical. For, once clinically evident, those pathological changes are irreversible. But there is no validated in-vivo method that can be routinely used in the clinic for non-invasive assessment of placental function. In this study, the lab is optimizing its techniques for placental arterial spin labeling (ASL) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), and applying them to several patient cohorts to determine differences in placental perfusion, and oxygenation between healthy pregnancies and those complicated by fetal growth restriction or preeclampsia. The lab will also validate our magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches against placental pathology and pregnancy outcomes. 

Weill Cornell Medicine
Department of Radiology
525 East 68th Street New York, NY 10065