Fetal Heart Evaluation

Abstract

Congenital heart diseases are considered the most common fetal anomalies. While some of these anomalies may have a minimal impact on the life of a newborn, some may result in neonatal deaths in the early period. With early diagnosis, detection of anomalies that are incompatible with life and termination of pregnancy with the consent of the patient can be offered as options. In addition, since many cardiac anomalies are treated during the postpartum period, it is important to detect those having this type of anomaly and offer them an early and appropriate treatment option during the postpartum period. It is highly appropriate to have delivery in hospitals that are technically equipped to handle cardiac anomalies. For these reasons, fetal cardiac evaluations are now being performed recently. Technical difficulties, inability to spare enough time for the patient or lack of experience in the cardiac evaluation may facilitate the lack of detection of fetal heart anomalies. Cardiac anomalies are among the most undetected anomalies. Although it may seem like a very difficult evaluation at first, fetal cardiac evaluation is actually a very simple and easy to perform examination. By creating a certain algorithm, the most common cardiac anomalies can be detected easily. Each clinician should establish a certain order according to their own physical conditions and the basic structures to be considered should be evaluated in this order. In this article, we present suggestions on how to perform a fetal cardiac evaluation using current approaches.

Keywords

• congenital heart diseases
• fetal cardiac anomaly
• fetal cardiac evaluation