The Study Of Diagnosis Value In The Fetal Echocardiography With STIC

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of spatio-temporal image correlation (STIC) technique in the diagnosis of congenital heart defect, and a systematic analysis of the feasibility of STIC in the routine fetal echocardiography.MethodsA total of 433 fetus were enrolled in this study who were diagnosed by fetal echocardiography and analyzed by STIC technique. We got three effective STIC volumes from the normal fetal heart diagnosed by fetal echocardiography and kept taking volumes until ideal STIC volumes were obtained for the fetal CHD. The obtaining data were achieved as insufficient quality for clinic, sufficient quality for clinic and high quality for clinic according to the heart structures obtained that was reported as Devore. The accuracy of the fetal echocardiography and STIC technique in the diagnosis of the fetal CHD was checked by comparing the results to the autopsy of CHD and neonatal echocardiography after they were born. SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the percentages got from the study.Results401 cases were diagnosed as normal fetal heart by fetal echocardiography,32 cases as CHD. STIC was pointed out that there were special value and superiority in the diagnosis of congenital heart defects. Postpartum follow up and biopsy confirmed that 2 VSD missed diagnosis,1 VSD and 1 DORV misdiagnosis by fetal echocardiography, while STIC technique had 1 VSD missed diagnosis, confirmed one VSD which was diagnosed as normal fetal heart by echocardiography, corrected one VSD diagnosed as a normal heart and one TOA which was misdiagnosed as DORV by echocardiography. Among the 308 cases who were diagnosed exactly according to the follow up, the sensitivity of the fetal echocardiography and STIC technique in the diagnosis of CHD were 93.9% and 99.6% separately, and the specificity were 97.0% and 100% separately. Among the 401 normal fetus who were diagnosed as normal heart by echocardiography,52(13.0%) cases were with high quality for clinic,227(56.6%) had sufficient quality for clinic and 122(30.4%) had insufficient quality for clinic. There was difference between the front and later study period.ConclusionsThe superiority and special value of STIC technique in the diagnosis of fetal CHD had been confirmed by our study, and quality of the STIC can be improved by increasing the collecting skill.