Why the study?
Does 3D/4D ultrasound improve the screening and evaluation of fetal congenital heart disease?
Does 3D/4D ultrasound improve the screening and evaluation of fetal congenital heart disease?
While 3D/4D ultrasound shows potential for assessing fetal cardiac function, its added value over standard screening for congenital heart defects remains unestablished.
3D/4D US should not yet alter fetal CHD screening; leaves open functional assessment pending higher-level evidence.
3D and 4D ultrasound (3D/4D US) acquisition and postprocessing techniques have been extensively applied to all aspects of fetal scanning and to fetal echocardiography in particular. While many centers worldwide have adopted these applications, the added value of 3D/4D US to the accuracy of screening echocardiography or the evaluation of congenital heart disease has not been established. 3D/4D US has shown great potential as a new tool in functional evaluation of the fetal heart. It may make feasible the direct assessment of some cardiac functional parameters, such as ventricular volume and mass, myocardial performance and myocardial contraction. In this article, we will review the state of the art and science in 3D/4D US in the screening and detailed evaluation of congenital heart disease.
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Yagel et al. (2009) studied this question.
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