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Evaluation of fetal cardiac valve anomalies by four‐dimensional echocardiography with spatiotemporal image correlation (4D STIC )
Author(s) -
Hu Guyue,
Zhang Ying,
Fan Miao,
Wang Meilian,
Siddiqui Faiza Amber,
Wang Yu,
Sun Wei,
Sun Feifei,
Zhang Dongyu,
Lei Wenjia,
Sun Xue
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/echo.13336
Subject(s) - fetus , cardiac valve , medicine , fetal echocardiography , atrioventricular valve , radiology , gestational age , fetal heart , cardiology , prenatal diagnosis , pregnancy , ventricle , genetics , biology
Background Prenatal diagnosis of cardiac valve anomalies challenged most screening sonographers. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of four‐dimensional echocardiography with spatiotemporal image correlation (4D STIC ) in detecting normal and abnormal fetal cardiac valves. Methods Forty‐three cases of confirmed cardiac valve anomalies identified by two‐dimensional echocardiography (2 DE ) were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Additional 121 confirmed normal fetuses were included as controls. Four‐dimensional volumes were acquired from each fetus using a transverse sweep. Four‐dimensional rendered images were retrieved from the volumes for each of the cardiac valves for the normal fetuses and for the intended valves for fetuses with valve malformations. Results The visualization rates of cardiac valves retrieved from 4D volumes in the normal fetuses ranged from 72.5% to 97.5% before 33 gestational weeks and from 46.3% to 80.5% in late pregnancy. Furthermore, 4D rendered images were successfully obtained in 38 of 43 (88.4%) fetuses with cardiac valve lesions. Conclusions The 4D images and cine loops displayed the valves anatomy vividly in both normal and abnormal fetuses, including some subtle malformations which were not identified by traditional 2 DE . The standardized protocol we propose herein was important in obtaining the 4D images from the volumes. The 4D modality allows a better visualization of fetal cardiac valves and should be considered a valuable addition to traditional 2 DE imaging.