Application of automated sonography on 4-dimensional volumes of fetuses with transposition of the great arteries

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess, in second-trimester fetuses with transposition of the great arteries (TGA), the performance of software (sonographically based volume computer-aided analysis) that automatically retrieves diagnostic cardiac planes from a 4-dimensional volume of the fetal chest obtained with spatiotemporal image correlation. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the 4-dimensional spatiotemporal image correlation volumes of 12 fetuses with TGA (complete TGA, 10 cases; correct TGA, 2 cases). The data were analyzed to determine whether the target diagnostic planes, that is, cardiac plane 1 (left ventricle outflow tract) and cardiac plane 2 (right ventricle outflow tract), were correctly identified in at least 1 of the 7 automatically generated tomographic sonographic image displays and whether they allowed diagnosis of TGA. RESULTS: In 9 of 10 fetuses with complete TGA, target diagnostic cardiac plane 1 showed a branching arterial vessel (pulmonary artery) arising from the left ventricle, whereas in 7 of 10 fetuses, the aorta arising from the right ventricle was shown. In both cases with correct TGA, the pulmonary artery starting from the morphologic left ventricle was shown, whereas in 1 of 2, the connection of the aorta with the morphologic right ventricle was found. In all of the fetuses with TGA, a ventricular arterial connection anomaly was shown in either cardiac plane 1 or 2. CONCLUSIONS: This automatic approach shows good retrieval of diagnostic cardiac planes in fetuses with TGA, which may improve diagnostic efficacy for this disease.