Clinical value of fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography (5D Heart) in the display of key diagnostic elements in basic fetal echocardiographic views

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography (5D Heart) in the display of key diagnostic elements in basic fetal echocardiographic views. Methods Using volume probe, 3D volume datasets of the 209 normal singleton fetuses in the second and third trimesters were acquired from a four-chamber view. After processing the datasets by using 5D Heart, 9 cardiac diagnostic planes were acquired and then the image qualities of key diagnosis elements of the heart and great vessels were graded by 3 doctors with different experiences of performing fetal echocardiography. Results Two hundred and sixty-two volume datasets were acquired from 209 normal fetuses, including 53 volume datasets collected when cardiac apex was in different directions, satisfactory datasets failed to be acquired in 27 fetuses because of the maternal obesity, the artifacts of fetal movement, or other influencing factors. Two hundred and thirty-one volume datasets of 182 fetuses could be used for 5D Heart analyzing and displaying, and the displaying rate of 9 standard diagnostic views was up to 88.2%. No significant difference was found when comparing the grading results of one observer in different periods of time, the grading results between two experienced doctors and the grading results among the experienced doctor and one relatively inexperienced doctor (P>0.05). Conclusions 5D Heart has high reliability and repeatability in obtaining fetal echocardiographic diagnosis views and displaying fetal elemental diagnostic information. Key words: Fetal echocardiography; Congenital heart disease; Fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography; Spatiotemporal image correlation