Four-dimensional color Doppler reconstruction of the fetal heart with glass-body rendering mode.

The investigators present their experience with normal fetal cardiac structures and congenital heart anomalies reconstructed using 4-dimensional color Doppler with glass-body rendering mode and spatiotemporal image correlation. Two normal fetuses and 6 fetuses with congenital heart anomalies (1 case each of ventricular septal defect, Ebstein's anomaly, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and ductus arteriosus aneurysm and 2 of double-outlet right ventricle) at 26 to 36 weeks' gestation were studied using 4-dimensional color Doppler with glass-body rendering mode. In normal fetal hearts, blood flow through the 4 cardiac chambers and crisscross arrangements of the pulmonary artery and aorta were clearly recognized. In the fetus with a ventricular septal defect, significant shunt flow through the defect between the left and right ventricles was evident. In the fetus with Ebstein's anomaly, giant tricuspid regurgitant flow was noted. In the fetus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, large tricuspid regurgitant flow was identified. In the fetuses with double-outlet right ventricles, large aortas and small pulmonary arteries leaving the right ventricles in parallel were clearly shown. In the fetus with a ductus arteriosus aneurysm, an enlarged ductus arteriosus following the pulmonary artery was clearly depicted. In conclusion, fetal 4-dimensional color Doppler may assist in the evaluation of spatial relations between the great vessels and both ventricles and differences in the sizes of the great vessels and cardiac chambers.