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Intracardiac echogenic focus and fetal outcome
Author(s) -
Gupta Geetika,
Aggarwal Shagun,
Phadke Shubha R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of clinical ultrasound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.272
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1097-0096
pISSN - 0091-2751
DOI - 10.1002/jcu.20741
Subject(s) - medicine , intracardiac injection , fetus , echogenicity , pregnancy , retrospective cohort study , obstetrics , ventricle , radiology , surgery , ultrasonography , genetics , biology
Background To study the outcome of the fetuses with intracardiac echogenic focus (ICEF). Methods All patients who were found to have one or more ICEF on sonographic (US) examination at our center from January 2007 through January 2009 were included in this retrospective study. ICEF was defined as a discrete area of echogenicity noted in the left or right ventricle, which was as bright as bone. Patients were followed up to know pregnancy outcome. Results Of 762 fetuses evaluated by US, 48 (6.3%) were found to have an ICEF. Thirty‐one of these 48 fetuses had an isolated ICEF; 11 had associated major malformations, and the remaining 6 had no major US abnormalities but were found to have other soft markers. Invasive prenatal testing was done in 21 cases for risk factors other than ICEF and was found to be abnormal in two cases. Seven pregnancies were terminated due to associated major malformations. Conclusion The prevalence of ICEF was 6.3%. Of 31 fetuses with an isolated ICEF, outcomes of 28 fetuses are known and all neonates were reported to be normal at birth. Thus we infer that the presence of an isolated ICEF has no adverse effect on outcome of the neonate. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound, 2010