Echocardiography in Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Advances in fetal cardiac ultrasound have provided evidence of the natural history of the fetal cardiac response to many different stresses. Fetal echocardiography lends particular insight into the diverse etiologies of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). For example, structural malformations diagnosed by echocardiographic evaluation may lead one to suspect aneuploidy as the cause for symmetric IUGR. Likewise, evidence of myocarditis or high cardiac output states may indicate an infectious etiology. This article, however, will be devoted to the echocardiographic findings associated with uteroplacental insufficiency and the mechanisms responsible for cardiac hemodynamic changes in response to different loading conditions on the fetal heart.