scholarly journals Convolutional neural network for semantic segmentation of fetal echocardiography based on four-chamber view

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1987-1996
Author(s):  
M. N. Rachmatullah ◽  
Siti Nurmaini ◽  
A. I. Sapitri ◽  
A. Darmawahyuni ◽  
B. Tutuko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Septal Defect ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Ultrasound Images ◽  
Combination Technique ◽  
Manual Task ◽  
Chamber View ◽  
Testing Data

The acute shortage of trained and experienced sonographers causes the detection of congenital heart defects (CHDs) extremely difficult. In order to minimize this difficulty, an accurate fetal heart segmentation to the early location of such structural heart abnormalities prior to delivery is essential. However, the segmentation process is not an easy task due to the small size of the fetal heart structure. Moreover, the manual task for identifying the standard cardiac planes, primarily based on a four-chamber view, requires a well-trained clinician and experience. In this paper, a CNN method using U-Net architecture was proposed to automate fetal cardiac standard planes segmentation from ultrasound images. A total of 519 fetal cardiac images was obtained from three videos. All data is divided into training and testing data. The testing data consist of 106 slices of the four-chamber segmentation tasks, i.e. atrial septal defect (ASD), ventricular septal defect (VSD), and normal. The segmentation of the post-processing method is needed to enhanced the segmentation result. In this paper, a combination technique with U-Net and Otsu thresholding gives the best performances with 99.48%-pixel accuracy, 96.73% mean accuracy, 94.92% mean intersection over union, and 0.21% segmentation error. In the future, the implementation of Deep Learning in the study of CHDs holds significant potential for identifying novel CHDs in heterogeneous fetal hearts.

scholarly journals Segmentation atrioventricular septal defect by using convolutional neural networks based on U-NET architecture

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Ade Iriani Sapitri ◽  
Siti Nurmaini ◽  
Sukemi Sukemi ◽  
M. Naufal Rachmatullah ◽  
Annisa Darmawahyuni
Keyword(s):  
Congenital Heart Disease ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Congenital Heart ◽  
Septal Defect ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Atrioventricular Septal Defect ◽  
Ultrasound Images ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Segmentation Process

Congenital heart disease often occurs, especially in infants and fetuses. Fetal image is one of the issues that can be related to the segmentation process. The fetal heart is an important indicator in the process of structural segmentation and functional assessment of congenital heart disease. This study is very challenging due to the fetal heart has a relatively unclear structural anatomical appearance, especially in the artifacts in ultrasound images. There are several types of congenital heart disease that often occurs namely in septal defects it consists of the atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, and atrioventricular septal defect. The process of identifying the standard of the heart, especially the fetus, can be identified with a 2D ultrasound video in the initial steps to diagnose congenital heart disease. The process of diagnosis of fetal heart standards can be seen from a variety of spaces, i.e., 4 chamber views. In this study, the standard semantic segmentation process of the fetal heart is abnormal and normal in terms of the perspective of 4 chamber views. The validation evaluation results obtained in this study amounted to 99.79% pixel accuracy, mean iou 96.10%, mean accuracy 97.82%, precision 96.41% recall 95.72% and F1 score 96.02%.

Master Frame Extraction of Fetal Cardiac Images Using B Mode Ultrasound Images

2022 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Sushma Tumkur Venugopal ◽  
Sriraam Natarajan ◽  
Megha P. Arakeri ◽  
Suresh Seshadri
Keyword(s):  
Mean Square Error ◽  
Hausdorff Distance ◽  
Cardiac Cycle ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Similarity Index ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Ultrasound Images ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
Structural Similarity Index

Fetal Echocardiography is used for monitoring the fetal heart and for detection of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD). It is well known that fetal cardiac four chamber view has been widely used for preliminary examination for the detection of CHD. The end diastole frame is generally used for the analysis of the fetal cardiac chambers which is manually picked by the clinician during examination/screening. This method is subjected to intra and inter observer errors and also time consuming. The proposed study aims to automate this process by determining the frame, referred to as the Master frame from the cine loop sequences that can be used for the analysis of the fetal heart chambers instead of the clinically chosen diastole frame. The proposed framework determines the correlation between the reference (first) frame with the successive frames to identify one cardiac cycle. Then the Master frame is formed by superimposing all the frames belonging to one cardiac cycle. The master frame is then compared with the clinically chosen diastole frame in terms of fidelity metrics such as Dice coefficient, Hausdorff distance, mean square error and structural similarity index. The average value of the fidelity metrics considering the dataset used for this study 0.73 for Dice, 13.94 for Hausdorff distance, 0.99 for Structural Similarity Index and 0.035 for mean square error confirms the suitability of the proposed master frame extraction thereby avoiding manual intervention by the clinician. .

Fetal Heart and Descending Aorta Detection in Four-Chamber View of Fetal Echocardiography

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan An ◽  
Jing Lv ◽  
Haogang Zhu ◽  
Jingyi Wang ◽  
Xiaoxue Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Descending Aorta ◽  
Chamber View

Ultrasound examination of pregnant women in diagnosing fetal cardiac pathology

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
Viktoria A. Lim
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Ultrasound Screening ◽  
Atrioventricular Canal ◽  
Cardiac Pathology ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
Atrioventricular Canal Defect

Hypothesis/aims of study. Fetal heart defects are the most common malformations causing infant mortality. The task of the obstetric care service is to make a timely diagnosis, which includes high-quality ultrasound screening and, if necessary, fetal echocardiography. This study aimed to compare fetal echocardiography with postpartum echocardiography. Study design, materials and methods. 101 pregnant women with both isolated fetal heart defects and combined pathology were examined for the period 20172019. Results. The greatest number of heart defects was detected at 2331 weeks of gestation. The structure of the malformations is diverse, the most common one being a complete form of the atrioventricular canal defect. In multiple pregnancies, complex heart defects were often combined with abnormalities in other organ systems. Conclusion. It is recommended to describe the heart structure in detail from 2122 weeks of pregnancy. If cardiac pathology is detected in utero, it is mandatory to conduct an examination of other fetal organs.

scholarly journals Feasibility and accuracy of fetal echocardiography at routine 11 to 13 weeks 6 days ultrasound performed on unselected obstetric population in a tertiary maternity centre with high patient turnover

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Vidyashree G. Poojari ◽  
Arevidya Reddy ◽  
Akhila Vasudeva
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Gestational Age ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Nuchal Translucency ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Chamber View ◽  
Obstetric Population ◽  
Turn Over

Background: Congenital heart defects (CHD) remain the most prevalent congenital malformations, with an estimated prevalence of 6-8 per 1000 live births. Routinely, fetal echo is performed around 18-22 weeks among high risk cases. A dedicated early fetal echo (EFEC) performed by experts between 11-16 weeks is emerging as an excellent screening tool among high risk cases. However, feasibility of obtaining such cardiac views during routine Nuchal Translucency scan by trained obstetricians, is yet to be known as there is limited time available with high patient turn over. Present study aimed to know the feasibility and accuracy of EFEC in unselected obstetric population in a tertiary maternity centre with high patient turnover.Methods: This was an observational cohort study from March 2015 to April 2017 at a tertiary maternity referral hospital. Singleton pregnant women undergoing routine 11-13+6 weeks scanning (NT scan) were recruited in the study including both high and low risk pregnancies. Possibility of obtaining 4 basic cardiac views within this limited time was assessed.Results: A total of 180 early fetal ECHO’s were performed during the course of this study. The 4-chamber view (79.44%) of the heart was the easiest parameter to visualize. RVOT (28.88%) was the most difficult view to be obtained. Complete visualization of all the cardiac views was possible in only 34 women (18.88%). The visualization rates of the cardiac views improved as the gestational age increased. TVS was essential to obtain cardiac views in 5 cases out of 138 (3.6%) in 12-13+6 scans. Whereas, TVS was essential to visualize cardiac views in 34 cases out of 42 (80.95%) between 11 weeks to 11 weeks 6 days. A total of 7 cardiac anomalies were detected during this study. There were 3 major and 4 minor cardiac malformations. Out of the 3 major anomalies, 2 were AVSDs which were diagnosed by EFEC. Minor defects were undetected.Conclusions: It is feasible to get the basic cardiac views in the limited time available to perform NT scan among unselected obstetric population in a tertiary maternity centre with a high turnover. Gestational age of 12 weeks and above seems to increase the accuracy. TVS is a useful adjunct throughout 11-14 weeks scan.

Echocardiography in Early Pregnancy

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Comas ◽  
Pilar Prats RodrRguez
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Early Pregnancy ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Transvaginal Ultrasound ◽  
First Trimester ◽  
Slight Reduction

ABSTRACT Within the last decade, two significant events have contributed to the increasing interest in early fetal echocardiography. First, the introduction of high frequency vaginal ultrasound probes allows detailed visualization of cardiac structures at early stage of gestation, making early detection of fetal malformations possible. Second, the close relationship observed between some first trimester sonographic and Doppler markers and congenital heart defects allows an early identification of a high-risk group at 11 to 14 weeks of gestation. In this context, from the early 1990s, many authors have examined the potential role of the transvaginal approach to obtain earlier diagnosis of fetal cardiac malformations. Further studies have appeared in the literature showing that early transvaginal echocardiography in experienced hand is a fairly sensitive investigative tool. Although some malformations are detected as early as 11 weeks’ gestation, the optimal gestational age to perform the early scan is at least 13 weeks’ gestation. Transvaginal ultrasound is the preferred approach, although most of the authors agree that results can be improved if transabdominal ultrasound is also incorporated. The further application of color Doppler enhances visualization. The sensitivity and specificity of early fetal echocardiography for the detection of heart anomalies is acceptable compared to the ones obtained by mid-gestational echocardiography, showing a slight reduction in detection rates and an increase in false positive and negative rates. The cardiac anomalies detected at this early stage of pregnancy are mainly defects involving the four-chamber view, indicating that defects solely affecting the outflow tracts are difficult to diagnose in the first trimester of pregnancy. Heart defects diagnosed early in pregnancy tend to be more complex than those detected later, with a higher incidence of associated structural malformations, chromosomal abnormalities and spontaneous abortions. The neonate follow-up or postmortem examination in case of termination of pregnancy (TOP) is essential to assess the actual role of early fetal echocardiography. At present, early fetal echocardiography is a promising technique, which can be of considerable value for patients at high-risk. This technique is, however, currently limited to a few specialized centers. The aim of this review is to explore the possibilities of examining the fetal heart at this early stage of pregnancy. This article also present our experience in the first multicenter trial in early fetal echocardiography performed in Spain. In accordance with other studies, this experience stresses the usefulness of early echocardiography when performed by expert operators on fetus specifically at risk for cardiac defects. Our review of these additional 48 cases contributes to the expanding literature on the ability of transvaginal ultrasonography to detect fetal heart defects in early pregnancy. How to cite this article Gabriel CC, Rodriguez PP. Echocardiography in Early Pregnancy. Donald School J Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2013;7(2):168-181.

scholarly journals Early Fetal Echocardiography

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Pilar Prats ◽  
Carmina Comas
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Transvaginal Ultrasound ◽  
False Negative ◽  
First Trimester ◽  
Slight Reduction

ABSTRACT Within the last decade, two significant events have contributed to the increasing interest in early fetal echocardiography. First, the introduction of high-frequency vaginal ultrasound probes allows detailed visualization of cardiac structures at early stage of gestation, making early detection of fetal malformations possible. Second, the close relationship observed between some first trimester sonographic and Doppler markers and congenital heart defects allows an early identification of a high-risk group at 11 to 14 weeks of gestation. In this context, from the early 1990s, many authors have examined the potential role of the transvaginal (TV) approach to obtain earlier diagnosis of fetal cardiac malformations. Further studies have appeared in the literature showing that early TV echocardiography in experienced hands is a fairly sensitive investigative tool. Although some malformations are detected as early as 11 weeks gestation, the optimal gestational age to perform the early scan is at least 13 weeks gestation. Transvaginal ultrasound is the preferred approach, although most of the authors agree that results can be improved if transabdominal ultrasound is also incorporated. The further application of color Doppler enhances visualization. The sensitivity and specificity of early fetal echocardiography for the detection of heart anomalies is acceptable compared with the ones obtained by midgestational echocardiography, showing a slight reduction in detection rates and an increase in false-positive and false-negative rates. The cardiac anomalies detected at this early stage of pregnancy are mainly defects involving the four-chamber view, indicating that defects solely affecting the outflow tracts are difficult to diagnose in the first trimester of pregnancy. Heart defects diagnosed early in pregnancy tend to be more complex than those detected later, with a higher incidence of associated structural malformations, chromosomal abnormalities, and spontaneous abortions. The neonate follow-up or postmortem examination in case of termination of pregnancy is essential to assess the actual role of early fetal echocardiography. At present, early fetal echocardiography is a promising technique, which can be of considerable value for patients at high risk. This technique is, however, currently limited to a few specialized centers. The aim of this review is to explore the possibilities of examining the fetal heart at this early stage of pregnancy. This article also presents our experience in the first multicenter trial in early fetal echocardiography performed in Spain. In accordance with other studies, this experience stresses the usefulness of early echocardiography when performed by expert operators on fetus specifically at risk for cardiac defects. Our review of these additional 48 cases contributes to the expanding literature on the ability of TV ultrasonography to detect fetal heart defects in early pregnancy. How to cite this article Comas C, Prats P. Early Fetal Echocardiography. Donald School J Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2017;11(1):29-43.

A Rapid and Convenient Fetal Heart Screening Proposal Based on Dynamic Sequential Cross-Section

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1083-1085
Author(s):  
Yi Zhou ◽  
Wenqian Qiu ◽  
Shuqing Jiang ◽  
Danqing He ◽  
Chaoxue Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Congenital Heart ◽  
Fetal Heart ◽  
Fetal Echocardiography ◽  
Heart Defects ◽  
Screening Method ◽  
Health Burden ◽  
Infant Morbidity ◽  
Section Analysis

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are a global health burden and a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality. Fetal echocardiography is currently the best method for diagnosing CHDs prenatally, but it is not yet widely used for all fetuses because it is a time-consuming process that requires a highly skilled sonographer. We propose a dynamic sequential cross-section analysis as a screening method for CHDs; this screening method can systematically evaluate the fetal heart effectively and quickly.

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