Artificial amniotic fluid for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies

Doshina Naila; Siddharth Sadanand; Dafna Sussman

doi:10.1002/ansa.202100055

Artificial amniotic fluid for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies

Anal Sci Adv. 2022 Apr 24;3(5-6):174-187. doi: 10.1002/ansa.202100055. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

Doshina Naila^{1

2}, Siddharth Sadanand^{1

2

3}, Dafna Sussman^{1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Ryerson University Toronto Canada.
² Institute for Biomedical Engineering Science and Technology (iBEST) at Ryerson University and St. Michael's Hospital Toronto Canada.
³ Department of Biomedical Physics Ryerson University Toronto Canada.
⁴ The Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science St. Michael's Hospital Toronto Canada.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto Toronto Canada.

Abstract

Amniocentesis is the process of retrieving the nutrient-rich amniotic fluid (AF) that encompasses the growing fetus in order to diagnose fetal diseases and developmental disorders. Currently, it is only performed on pregnant persons at risk and is invasive with the potential for infection and in some cases, miscarriage. A non-invasive alternative is needed and could be developed using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). To develop such MRS sequences, ample testing and training are needed and could be most efficiently conducted on a phantom. We propose a protocol for creating such a synthetic AF phantom for MRS testing and optimization. The proposed AF is validated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) proving it produces spectra comparable to those in the literature. The results from this study can aid in developing a non-invasive fetal diagnostic tool to replace amniocentesis.

Keywords: amniotic fluid; biomarkers; disease detection; non‐invasive; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.