Maximal Reduction of STIC Acquisition Time for Volumetric Assessment of the Fetal Heart-Benefits and Limitations of Semiautomatic Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (FINE) Static Mode

Overview

Journal J Clin Med

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 Jul 27

PMID 35887826

Authors

Michael Gembicki

Jann Lennard Scharf

Christoph Dracopoulos

Amrei Welp

Jan Weichert

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

(1) Objective: To scrutinize the reliability and the clinical value of routinely used fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography (FINE) static mode (5DHeartStatic™) for accelerated semiautomatic volumetric assessment of the normal fetal heart. (2) Methods: In this study, a total of 296 second and third trimester fetuses were examined by targeted ultrasound. Spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) volumes of the fetal heart were acquired for further volumetric assessment. In addition, all fetal hearts were scanned by a fast acquisition time volume (1 s). The volumes were analyzed using the FINE software. The data were investigated regarding the number of properly reconstructed planes and cardiac axis. (3) Results: A total of 257 volumes were included for final analysis. The mean gestational age (GA) was 23.9 weeks (14.3 to 37.7 weeks). In 96.9 (standard acquisition time, FINE standard mode) and 94.2% (fast acquisition time, FINE static mode) at least seven planes were reconstructed properly ( = 0.0961, not significant). Regarding the overall depiction rate, the standard mode was able to reconstruct 96.9% of the planes properly, whereas the static mode showed 95.2% of the planes ( = 0.0098). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the automatic measurement of the cardiac axis (37.95 + 9.14 vs. 38.00 + 8.92 degrees, = 0.8827, not significant). (4) Conclusions: Based on our results, the FINE static mode technique is a reliable method. It provides similar information of the cardiac anatomy compared to conventional STIC volumes assessed by the FINE method. The FINE static mode has the potential to minimize the influence of motion artifacts during volume acquisition and might therefore be helpful concerning volumetric cardiac assessment in daily routine.

Citing Articles

Semi-Automatic Measurement of Fetal Cardiac Axis in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (FINE).

Weichert A, Gembicki M, Weichert J, Weber S, Koenigbauer J J Clin Med. 2023; 12(19).

PMID: 37835015 PMC: 10573854. DOI: 10.3390/jcm12196371.

Application of Semiautomatic Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (FINE) in Twin Pregnancies: Half the Work or Twice the Effort?.

Gembicki M, Welp A, Scharf J, Dracopoulos C, Weichert J Cureus. 2023; 15(4):e38052.

PMID: 37228519 PMC: 10207972. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.38052.

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