Quantitative assessment of the ductus arteriosus in normal fetuses in the second-third trimester using intelligent spatiotemporal image correlation with fetal heart navigator / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the feasibility of intelligent spatiotemporal image correlation-fetal heart navigator(iSTIC-FHN) in the display of the ductal arch view in normal fetuses ,and to compare two-dimensional echocardiography( 2DE) and iSTIC-FHN based measures of ductus arteriosus( DA ) in normal fetuses . Methods Two hundred and eleven normal fetuses with gestational age of 22 - 32 weeks were enrolled . Each fetus had undergone conventional 2DE examination and the iSTIC fetal cardiac volumes were obtained .The volume datasets were analyzed offline using new automatic software ( the Fetal Heart Navigator ,FHN ) . The diameter of DA were measured by 2DE and iSTIC based FHN ,respectively . Pearson's correlation analysis was used to examine the relation between gestational age and diameter of DA for both 2DE and iSTIC-FHN . The measurement of the diameters of ductus arteriosus by two methods were compared . Results The ductal arch view using FHN was successfully obtained in 165(78 .2％ ) cases among 211 normal cases . The comparison of 2DE and iSTIC-FHN in the measurement of the DA was made in 131(62 .1％ ) normal fetuses . Mean 2DE DA increased from ( 3 .00 ± 0 .23) mm at 22 weeks to ( 5 .42 ± 0 .26) mm at 32 weeks . Mean iSTIC-FHN DA increased from ( 2 .96 ± 0 .21) mm at 22 weeks to ( 5 .36 ± 0 .17) mm at 32 weeks . There was a good correlation between the two methods ( Pearson's R 2 = 0 .942 ,P =0 .539) . Bland-Altman plot showed the 95％ limits of agreement was ( - 0 .3287 ,0 .3111) . Conclusions iSTIC-FHN is the potential tool for the evaluation of the ductal arch view .