American Journal of Roentgenology, Vol 160, 1251-1255, Copyright © 1993 by American Roentgen Ray Society
Sonography of the fetal heart: normal variants and pitfalls
DL Brown, DN DiSalvo, MC Frates, PM Doubilet, CB Benson, FC Laing and IA Parness
Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
Sonographic evaluation of the fetal heart is an important part of obstetric
sonography. The sonographer and sonologist should be familiar with the
sonographic appearance of the normal fetal heart and with common structural
abnormalities. Occasionally, normal structures in or adjacent to the fetal
heart may simulate an abnormality. Although one should seek consultative
sonography in instances of uncertain or questionable findings, unnecessary
referral and concern may be avoided in some cases if the sonologist is
familiar with normal variants and pitfalls. In this pictorial essay, we
present several such pitfalls that we and others have observed in the
four-chamber view (Fig. 1) and in views of the ventricular outflow tracts
(Figs. 2 and 3).