Increasing the Detection Rate of Normal Fetal Cardiac Structures: A Real-Time Approach

The purpose of this study was to determine if acquiring real-time sweeps of the fetal heart would be a more effective method of identifying normal cardiac structures compared with using static images during routine second-trimester obstetric sonograms. Subjects were scanned using three different tec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of diagnostic medical sonography 2008-03, Vol.24 (2), p.63-71
Main Authors: Scott, Ted, Swan, Hans, Moran, Gerald, Mondal, Tapas, Jones, Judy, Guram, Karm, Huff, Jaime
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Heart
Medical examination
Methods
Structure
Ultrasound imaging
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to determine if acquiring real-time sweeps of the fetal heart would be a more effective method of identifying normal cardiac structures compared with using static images during routine second-trimester obstetric sonograms. Subjects were scanned using three different techniques. The static image acquisition (protocol A) included three images of the fetal heart. Protocol B used two gray-scale sweeps through the fetal heart. Protocol C acquired three color loops of the fetal heart. The sweeps demonstrated a complete normal cardiac assessment in 71% of studies, compared with the static image and color Doppler techniques that completed a normal cardiac assessment in only 39% of studies, respectively. The real-time technique detected four chambers, the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT), the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), the LVOT/RVOT crossover, and size and axis of the heart with a greater frequency than the static images and color loops in all cases. In addition, the real-time technique was able to demonstrate the pulmonary veins in 56% of cases compared with 3.6% for static images. The color Doppler acquisition demonstrated blood flow through the atrial-ventricular and semilunar valves in 86% of cases.
ISSN:8756-4793
1552-5430
DOI:10.1177/8756479308315234