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However, established cine MRI methods are not suitable for fetal heart imaging <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>, where anatomical structures are considerably smaller and recording an electrocardiogram signal for synchronizing MRI data acquisition is difficult. Here we present a framework to overcome these challenges. We use methods for image acquisition and reconstruction that robustly produce images with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to detect the heart contractions of the fetus, enabling a retrospective gating of the images and thus the generation of images of the beating heart. To underline the potential of our approach, we acquired <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic> images in six pregnant patients and compared these with their echocardiograms. We found good agreement in terms of diameter and area measurements, and low inter- and intra- observer variability. These results establish MRI as a reliable modality for fetal cardiac imaging, with a substantial potential for prenatal evaluation of congenital heart defects.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-017-15701-1","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,8]],"date-time":"2017-11-08T12:14:52Z","timestamp":1510143292000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":42,"title":["Fetal cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging in utero"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Jerome","family":"Chaptinel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jerome","family":"Yerly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yvan","family":"Mivelaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Milan","family":"Prsa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leonor","family":"Alamo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yvan","family":"Vial","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gregoire","family":"Berchier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chantal","family":"Rohner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fran\u00e7ois","family":"Gudinchet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthias","family":"Stuber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"15701_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bogaert, J., Dymarkowski, S., Taylor, A., M. & Muthurangu, V. 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The error has not been fixed in the paper.","order":6,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing Interests"}}],"article-number":"15540"}}