New and advanced features of fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography (FINE) or 5D heart

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the leading organ-specific birth defect, as well as the leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality from congenital malformations. Therefore, a comprehensive screening examination of the fetal heart should be performed in all women to maximize the detection of CHD. Four-dimensional sonography with spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) technology displays a cine loop of a complete single cardiac cycle in motion. A novel method known as Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (or FINE) was previously developed to interrogate STIC volume datasets using “intelligent navigation” technology. Such method allows the automatic display of nine standard fetal echocardiography views required to diagnose most cardiac defects. FINE considerably simplifies fetal cardiac examinations and reduces operator dependency. It has both high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of CHD. Indeed, FINE has been integrated into several commercially available ultrasound platforms.

Recently, eight novel and advanced features have been developed for the FINE method and they will be described herein. Such features can be categorized based upon their broad goals. The first goal is to simplify FINE further, and consists of the following features: (1) Auto fetal positioning (or FINE align); (2) Skip points; (3) Predictive cursor; (4) Static mode volume; and (5) Breech sweep. The second goal is to allow quantitative measurements to be performed on the cardiac views generated by FINE: (6) Automatic cardiac axis; and (7) Cardiac biometry. Finally, the last goal is to improve the success of obtaining fetal echocardiography view(s); and consists of (8) Maestro planar navigation.

Keywords:

• Congenital heart disease
• fetal echocardiography
• fetal heart
• STIC
• ultrasound

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible by a partnership with two unique computer scientists, Mr. Gustavo Abella and Mr. Ricardo Gayoso. The work of Dr. Romero was supported by the Perinatology Research Branch, Division of Intramural Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. Dr. Romero has contributed to this work as part of his official duties as an employee of the United States Federal Government. Dr. Lami Yeo was funded by Wayne State University through a service contract in support of the Perinatology Research Branch. The contributions of Mr. Abella and Mr. Gayoso were funded by Medge Platforms, Inc., New York, NY, USA.

This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the United States.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported, in part, by the Perinatology Research Branch, Division of Intramural Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH, DHHS; and in part with federal funds from NICHD, NIH, under Contract No. HHSN275201300006C.