Fetal tissue Doppler echocardiography: detection rates of cardiac structures and quantitative assessment of the fetal heart.

OBJECTIVES: Tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) has been developed in adult cardiology, but only recently has it been applied to fetal heart studies. We implemented TDE on a high-resolution ultrasound system used for prenatal scanning by changing the Doppler settings, but without specific TDE equipment, to study cardiac tissue motion of normal fetuses in the second and third trimesters. METHODS: Using color Doppler settings optimized for low velocity motion assessment, detection rates of cardiac structures were measured in 47 fetuses. With pulsed Doppler, axial diastolic and systolic cardiac wall velocities were recorded in another 30 fetuses. RESULTS: In all fetuses TDE could detect cardiac wall motion. The right ventricular wall and the level of the atrioventricular valves were most easily seen. Axial contraction velocities of the fetal heart increased with gestational age. CONCLUSIONS: TDE can be used to study normal fetal cardiac function throughout gestation. A regular ultrasound system without additional hardware or software is suitable for screening studies using TDE.