MRI in the assessment of pregnancy related intrauterine bleeding: a valuable adjunct to ultrasound?

MR imaging using ultrafast MR sequences is a useful method in assessing pregnancies at risk. This is especially the case for fetal imaging. However, reports of imaging of the placenta or the uterus are rare. We report the MR findings in 8 pregnant patients with vaginal blood loss in whom the obstetrical ultrasound was equivocal. MR imaging was performed with a 1.5 T magnet and consisted of T2- (HASTE), fat-suppressed gradient echo T1- and gradient echo T2-weighted images. Adequate anatomical visualisation of the uterus, the placentary tissue and the intrauterine bleeding irrespective of size and location of the latter, were obtained in all cases.