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Diagnostic Concept for Detecting Congenital Heart Defects in the First Trimester: Principles of Pattern Recognition
| Marcin Wiechec*, Agnieszka Nocun and Dominka Stettner | |
| Gynecology and Obstetrics, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland | |
| Corresponding Author : | Marcin Wiechec Chair of Gynecology and Obstetrics Jagiellonian University in Krakow 23 Kopernika Street; 31-501 Krakow, Poland Tel: +48124248423 Fax: +48124248584 E-mail: marcin_wiechec@su.krakow.pl |
| Received: September 24, 2015 Accepted: October 19, 2015 Published: October 23, 2015 | |
| Citation: Wiechec M, Nocun A, Stettner D (2015) Diagnostic Concept for Detecting Congenital Heart Defects in the First Trimester: Principles of Pattern Recognition. OMICS J Radiol 4:207. doi:10.4172/2167-7964.1000207 | |
| Copyright: © 2015 Wiechec M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Objective: In this paper we describe the technique of first-trimester cardiac evaluation that is used routinely for all nuchal scans at our institution and explain the pattern recognition concept.
Early cardiac assessment is generally performed at the time of first trimester nuchal scan. At this time of gestation, the cardiac structures are already developed and their mutual geometry is fixed as it is observed in the second trimester. Information acquired during the scan should let the examiner answer the following questions: Is the fetal heart located in the normal expected position? Is the visceral situs normal? Are the two ventricles developed? Is there a normal arrangement between both arches? Are these arches balanced in size?
