Analysis of the Anatomical Variability of Fetal Brains with Corpus Callosum Agenesis
Analyse de la Variabilité Anatomique des Cerveaux Foetaux avec une Agénésie du Corps Calleux
Résumé
Corpus Callosum Agenesis (CCA), one of the most common congenital anomalies, has uncertain neurodevelopmental outcome, especially when the disease is isolated. To provide parents with informed counselling, it is crucial to identify anatomical markers linked to a predicted outcome early in pregnancy. Quantitative exploration of fetal brains with CCA is rare and has been mostly limited to the study of specific brain structures. Here, we propose to characterize the anatomical variability of fetal brains with CCA using a shape analysis pipeline based on diffeomorphic transformation. 38 MRIs from healthy fetuses and 73 from fetuses with CCA are retrospectively selected and volume reconstructed. A healthy template is registered to each fetal brain to quantify deviations from normal development at a global scale. Deformations are parallel transported to the same space to smooth age differences between fetuses. Deformation modes specific to CCA are identified using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and classification. In accordance with more local analyses, the most relevant deformation mode for classification combines well-known alterations of brains with CCA. This preliminary work is promising for the quantitative exploration of abnormal fetal brains and will be used in the future to identify anatomical features
correlated to poor clinical outcome.