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Fetal cardiac function in fetuses with intracardiac echogenic foci
Author(s) -
Degani S.,
Leibovitz Z.,
Shapiro I.,
Ohel G.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.202
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1469-0705
pISSN - 0960-7692
DOI - 10.1046/j.1469-0705.2001.abs19-5.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , intracardiac injection , ventricle , fetus , cardiac function curve , diastole , fetal echocardiography , ejection fraction , cardiac cycle , prenatal diagnosis , heart failure , pregnancy , blood pressure , genetics , biology
Objective: To evaluate cardiac dimensions and function in euploid fetuses with intracardiac echogenic foci. Study design: Forty‐eight fetuses with a single cardiac echogenic focus situated in the left ventricle, had echocardiography performed at 22–24 weeks of gestation. Fifty normal fetuses at 22–24 weeks gestation served as controls. The 2‐D and M‐mode directed fetal echocardiography were used to exclude cardiac anomalies and measure right and left ventricular free walls and interventricular septal thickness and ventricular systolic and diastolic dimensions. Cardiac size was expressed as a ratio of ventricular wall thickness/biparietal diameter, and function was expressed as ventricular shortening fraction. Doppler fetal echocardiography measurements included pulmonary and aortic maximum systolic velocities and time to peak velocities as indices of ventricular systolic function and the ratio between E‐wave and A‐wave at the level of atrioventricular valves as indices of ventricular diastolic function. Results: Early ventricular filling/active atrial filling ratios (E/A ratios) were significantly lower in fetuses with intracardiac echogenic foci than in control fetuses. No significant differences were found in cardiac dimensions, ventricular shortening fraction and Doppler systolic indices. Conclusion: Euploid fetuses with intracardiac echogenic foci show low E/A ratio values in mid‐trimester echocardiography. This finding might indicate cardiac diastolic dysfunction.