Superiority of enhanced flow imaging technique in detecting fetal pulmonary vein

JING Yan; ZHENG Yanfen; WANG Tieying; WEI Hongying; NING Wei; YANG Xia; XIN Qiang

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-6450.2015.05.019

Abstract：Objective To investigate the advantage of enhanced imaging techniques ( E-flow) in detection of fetal pulmonary vein,and to evaluate the clinical application value of prenatal detection of fetal pulmonary veins in screening and help for the early diagnosis of fetal congenital heart disease.Methods 190 cases of normal fetal ( normal fetus group) and 6 cases of prenatal diagnosed as fetal cardiac abnormalities ( congenital heart disease group) were enrolled, E-flow and color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) were compared in display the fetal pulmonary veins, measured and evaluated the pulmonary ve-nous flow parameters.Results 16-24 weeks’ fetal pulmonary veins display rate, E-flow technology was significantly better than that of CDFI (χ2 =14.769, P <0.05) 24 +1 -40 weeks on pulmonary vein display rate was not statistically significant (χ2 =1.920, P >0.05) .Pulmonary vein diameter were grew with gestational age growth, S peak, D peak and A wave were went faster with the gestational age increased;PI and PVI gradually decreased with increase of gestational weeks.There were obvious positive correlation of fetal pulmonary vein diameter, S, D, A and gestational age ( r =0.973, r =0.959, r =0.944, r =0.950, P <0.05);PI, PVI were negatively correlated with gestational age ( r =-0.821, r =-0.855, P <0.05).CHD group’s pulmonary venous PI and PVI were higher than the gestational age matched normal fetal group, A wave was low, there was significant difference between the 2 groups ( P <0.05) .Conclusion E-flow technology in antenatal ex-am the fetal pulmonary vein with advantage of earlier and more clearly show the path of fetal pulmonary veins, and provide val-uable for clinical early diagnosis of fetal congenital heart disease information.