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. 2022 Jul-Sep;48(3):247-254.
doi: 10.12865/CHSJ.48.03.01. Epub 2022 Sep 30.

Postmortem Evaluation of First Trimester Fetal Heart

Dan Ruican  1   2 , Ana-Maria Petrescu  1 , Anca-Maria Istrate-Ofiţeru  1   3   4 , Dominic Gabriel Iliescu  1   5
Affiliations

Postmortem Evaluation of First Trimester Fetal Heart

Dan Ruican et al. Curr Health Sci J. 2022 Jul-Sep.

Abstract

Due to rapid technology advancement and increasing diagnostic expertise, fetal medicine is rapidly improving. Prenatal diagnostic advancements made it possible to identify structural abnormalities in fetuses as early as the first trimester of pregnancy. However, to validate the echocardiographic diagnosis that led to the pregnancy termination, the termination of pregnancy owing to severe fetal deformities should be audited in accordance with a correct anatomic diagnosis. Following the PRISMA declaration, a systematic literature search was done to find articles on post-mortem first trimester human fetal heart evaluation. Thirteen suitable studies were found using the search method. It is theoretically possible to examine the human fetal heart after death in early pregnancy however these methods are not widely available due the costs associated with the procedure and the equipment, the effects of tissue coloration and distortion brought on by the fixation and contrasting processes (for micro-CT), the current requirement for a skilled operator to acquire, reconstruct, and process the images, and data storage requirements greater than those of conventional clinical scans.

Keywords: Postmortem first trimester fetal heart; congenital heart disease; virtual autopsy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection flow chart in this systematic review of postmortem evaluation of first trimester fetal heart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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