Goal

Prenatal brain development can be affected by several conditions, and may be responsible for neurodevelopmental problems in childhood. Early diagnosis is essential to be able to intervene early and reduce the impact on postnatal life. “MULTI-FACT: Multi-centric study of Fetal Abnormal Cortical Trajectory with standardized and privacy preserving method on fetal MRI” is a collaborative research project under the umbrella of Era-net Neuron, with the aim of providing the global community with effective tools to improve prenatal diagnosis of abnormal neurodevelopment.

Start: 01/06/2022

End: 01/06/2025

Methodology and Participants

We will use more than 900 fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquired during the last 15 years in 4 different hospitals. They will be processed homogeneously: artificial intelligence techniques will be applied to automatically examine them and find biomarkers that show the normal cortical maturation pattern. We will compare this normal pattern with two conditions known to have a negative effect on brain development: intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC).

Innovation & Impact

MULTI-FACT is the first international initiative for gathering relevant image descriptors of abnormal fetal cortical development in large multicentric cohort!