Effect role of initial planes on the examination of fetal heart by four-dimensional echocardiography with spatiotemporal image correlation

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether different initial planes have an effect on examination of the fetal heart by four-dimensional ultrasound with spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC). Methods The standard examination planes of fetal heart were rendered using the heart volume data which were acquired in different initial planes with STIC, then these rendered planes were compared and scored. Results ① At the four-chamber initial planes, the reconstruction rate of longitudinal planes of the aortic arch (46.27%) and the pulmonary artery (49.25%) were poor, in addition, the reconstruction showed low quality, and the average scores were 1.366 and 1.403, respectively. ② At the left outflow-tract initial planes, reconstruction rates of all planes were above 75%, and there was no statistical difference(P=0.169). Each reconstruction plane had good score, even if the scores of longitudinal planes of the aortic arch/pulmonary artery were low, whose scores reached 1.936 and 2.051, respectively. ③ At the initial longitudinal planes of the aortic arch, the reconstruction rate (96.67%) and average reconstruction score (2.617) of longitudinal planes of the pulmonary artery were obviously higher than those of other planes. ④ Compared with different initial planes, volume data acquired from left outflow-tract initial planes could lead to high-quality reconstructed planes of all standard examination planes. While four-chamber initial planes acquired high-quality standard examination planes except longitudinal planes of the aortic arch and pulmonary artery. Volume data from initial longitudinal plane of the aortic arch acquired low-quality standard examination planes except longitudinal planes of the aortic arch and longitudinal plane of the pulmonary artery. Conclusions With STIC, sonographers can not only save the volume data for off-line analysis and remote consultation but also choose the better initial planes for themselves during the examination of fetal hearts. Key words: Echocardiography, four-dimensional; Fetal heart; Initial planes; Spatiotemporal image correlation