Fig. 1

Workflow for creating fetal CMR phantom data. a High resolution numerical phantoms of maternal and fetal anatomy are derived from a female XCAT model modified to include an extended abdomen and amniotic fluid (maternal), and an infant XCAT model with modified limbs. b Using the models from (a), independent 4D images are generated that cover the maternal abdomen and full fetal anatomy over a complete maternal respiratory cycle and fetal cardiac cycle. c For each time point in the simulated acquisition, a Fetal XCMR image with CMR contrast and physiological motion is defined by user-selected acquisition parameters and motion amplitudes respectively. Fetal XCMR k-space data is then generated from the previously defined image and time point and steps iii-x are repeated to create a complete Fetal XCMR data set. All steps from (c) contain user modifiable parameters as listed in Table 1