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Review
. 2000 Mar;83(3):367.
doi: 10.1136/heart.83.3.367.

Antenatal diagnosis of heart disease

L Allan  1
Affiliations
Review

Antenatal diagnosis of heart disease

L Allan. Heart. 2000 Mar.
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
A normal four chamber view showing a heart of normal size (about one third of the thorax) in a normal position within the thorax (about 45° to the midline). There are two equally sized atria and two equally sized ventricles. In the moving image both atrioventricular valves would be seen to open equally. There is a "cross" at the crux of the heart, where the atrial and ventricular septum meet at the insertion of the two atrioventricular valves. LA, left atrium; RA, right atrium; LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
The fetal heart is oriented similarly to the normal example seen in fig 1. The most common anomaly detected prenatally is depicted. There is no "cross" appearance at the crux of the heart owing to a common atrioventricular junction and a complete atrioventricular septal defect. Despite the obvious difference between this and the four chamber view of the normal heart, only about 50% of cases are detected in fetal life.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
This fetal heart is oriented similarly to the normal example shown in fig 1. The second most common anomaly detected prenatally is depicted. The left atrium is small. The left ventricle is hypoplastic with the right heart forming the apex. The mitral valve is not patent. This is mitral atresia, in its most frequent setting of the hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Again, this defect is only detected prenatally in just over half of cases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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