Early Detection of Fetal Minor Cardiac Anomalies in High-Risk Pregnant Women Using Doppler Measurements of Ductus Venosus

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University

2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University

3 Department of Reproductive Health and Family planning, Medical Research Institute, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/ejmr.2024.274714.1583

Abstract

Background: Ductus venosus (DV) is a very essential regulator of oxygenated blood         in fetal life, an essential component of assessing prenatal fetal cardiac activity is DV evaluation. It is a useful technique for prenatal congenital heart disease (CHD) screening and diagnosis. Objective: To evaluate the DV abnormal measurements by Doppler ultrasonography and their value to improve the prediction of fetal CHD in pregnant women. Methods: study Was carried out on 142 fetuses from 114 cases of pregnant women (28 of them had twin) with a risk factor for fetal congenital heart diseases were subjected to 1st trimester scan for detection of ductus venosus abnormality, this was followed by 2nd trimester fetal echocardiography to detect minor CHD, by using 2D ultrasound for anomaly scan and complementary by 3D. Results: our study revealed that 97.2% of the study population had (Normal A wave) normal ductus venosus, and 2.8% had abnormal A wave. Regarding the heart anomalies; (97.9%) of the study population had a normal heart scan, and 2.1% had abnormal heart scan in the form of atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD-VSD). There was a substantial correlation between prenatal echocardiography-detected heart abnormalities and ductus venosus waveforms. The cardiac defect was observed in 3 fetuses (2.1%) and 2 of these had abnormal Doppler waveforms in the ductus venosus. Conclusion: Our study concluded that there was a substantial correlation between prenatal echocardiography-detected heart abnormalities and ductus venosus waveforms.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Sun, L., Marini, D., Saini, B., Schrauben, E., Macgowan, C. K., & Seed,M(2020).Understanding fetal hemodynamics using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy.
  2. Meland, E. (2012). Numerical Investigation of the Hemodynamics in the Human Fetal Umbilical Vein/Ductus Venosus Bifurcation(Master's thesis, Institutt for konstruksjonsteknikk).‏
  3. Boyd, R., McMullen, H., Beqaj, H., & Kalfa, D. (2022). Environmental Exposures and Congenital Heart Disease. Pediatrics, 149(1)
  4. Kalisch-Smith, J. I., Ved, N., & Sparrow, D. B. (2020). Environmental risk factors for congenital heart disease. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 12(3), a037234.
  5. Levey, A., Glickstein, J. S., Kleinman, C. S., Levasseur, S. M., Chen, J., Gersony, W. M., & Williams, I. A. (2010). The impact of prenatal diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease on neonatal outcomes. Pediatric cardiology, 31, 587-597.‏
  6. Seravalli, V., Miller, J. L., Block‐Abraham, D., & Baschat, A. A. (2016). Ductus venosus Doppler in the assessment of fetal cardiovascular health: an updated practical approach. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 95(6), 635-644.‏
  7. Seravalli, V., Masini, G., Ponziani, I., Di Tommaso, M., & Pasquini, L. (2022). Ductus venosus Doppler assessment: do the results differ between the sagittal and the transverse approach? The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 1-6.‏‏
  8. Tegnander, E., Williams, W., Johansen, O. J., Blaas, H. G., & Eik‐Nes, S. H. (2006). Prenatal detection of heart defects in a non‐selected population of 30 149
  9. Kiserud, T. (2005, December). Physiology of the fetal circulation. In Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine(Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 493-503). WB Saunders.‏ fetuses-detection rates and outcome. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 27(3), 252-265
  10. Papatheodorou, S. I., Evangelou, E., Makrydimas, G., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2011). First‐trimester ductus venosus screening for cardiac defects: a meta‐BJOG: An international journal of obstateric & gynacology.
  11. Chelemen, T., Syngelaki, A., Maiz, N., Allan, L., & Nicolaides, K. H. (2011). Contribution of ductus venosus Doppler in first-trimester screening for major cardiac defects. Fetal diagnosis and therapy, 29(2), 127-134.‏
  12. Favre, R., Cherif, Y., Kohler, M., Kohler, A., Hunsinger, M. C., Bouffet, N., & Nisand, I. (2003). The role of fetal nuchal translucency and ductus venosus Doppler at 11–14 weeks of gestation in the detection of major congenital heart defects. Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology: The Official Journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 21(3), 239-243.‏ health: an updated practical approach. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 2016, 95.6: 635-644.‏
  13. Ye, Z., Wang, L., Yang, T., Chen, L., Wang, T., Chen, L., ... & Qin, J. (2019). Maternal viral infection and risk of fetal congenital heart diseases: a meta analysis of observational studies. Journal of the American Heart Association, 8(9), e011264.
  14. Li SH, Liu LZ, Tong YF (2016). Study on the relationship between pregnancy infection and congenital heart disease in children. Chin J Hosp Infect Dis.; 26:177–179.

 

 

 

Egyptian Journal of Medical Research
Volume 6, Issue 3
July 2025
Pages 193-205

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics