Radiology

Fetus

Biology

Magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiology

Surgery

Ultrasound

Prospective cohort study

Fetal echocardiography

3D ultrasound

Prenatal diagnosis

Gestational age

Pregnancy

Heart disease

Genetics

Medicine

The Lancet

Two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound echocardiography is the primary technique used to diagnose congenital heart disease before birth. There is, however, a longstanding need for a reliable form of secondary imaging, particularly in cases when more detailed three-dimensional (3D) vascular imaging is required, or when ultrasound windows are of poor diagnostic quality. Fetal MRI, which is well established for other organ systems, is highly susceptible to fetal movement, particularly for 3D imaging. The objective of this study was to investigate the combination of prenatal MRI with novel, motion-corrected 3D image registration software, as an adjunct to fetal echocardiography in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease.

Three-dimensional visualisation of the fetal heart using prenatal MRI with motion-corrected slice-volume registration: a prospective, single-centre cohort study