Accuracy of telediagnosis of fetal heart disease using ultrasound images transmitted via the Internet |
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Authors: | Takashi Hishitani Yoshitaka Fujimoto Yukinori Saito Kenji Sugamoto Kenji Hoshino Kiyoshi Ogawa |
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Institution: | Department of Cardiology, Saitama Children's Medical Center, , Saitama, Japan |
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Abstract: | We verified the feasibility of telediagnosis of fetal disease by (i) grading telediagnosis by a pediatric cardiologist into five confidence levels; and (ii) comparison of fetal telediagnosis with hands‐on fetal diagnosis or postnatal diagnosis. In 114 patients suspected of having heart disease (real time, n = 15; recorded image transmission, n = 99), 79 patients were in level 5 (excellent), 17 in level 4 (good), eight in level 3 (fair), 10 in level 2 (poor), and no patients in level 1 (bad). The average was 4.5, and in 96 patients (84% of all) telediagnosis was accurate (above 4), whereas in 18 patients it was inaccurate (level 2 or 3). In re‐examination of 25 patients, telediagnosis was confirmed in patients in level 4 and 5, whereas heart disease was missed in patients in levels 2 or 3. The correct diagnosis matched the high confidence level of a specialist based on recognizable transmitted images. |
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Keywords: | fetal cardiac screening fetal diagnosis medical link telediagnosis ultrasound diagnosis |
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