Objective: To investigate the value of four-chamber view for the prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease.
Methods: A total of 780 fetal hearts were examined by the four-chamber view between 16 and 36 weeks of gestation, and the clinical data were analyzed and the newborns were followed.
Results: Among the 780 fetus, the four-chamber view was obtained in 94.6% of the fetus and three of them were found abnormal and heart malformations were diagnosed. One was Ebstein syndrome, the second was seriously ventricular septal defect and the third was single ventricle and single atrium. The first and the third case were confirmed after birth by echocardiography and autopsy, and the second case was single ventricle and single atrium diagnosed by echocardiography of the newborn. The other 777 newborns were followed to six weeks after birth. Three more heart malformations were diagnosed. One is ventricular septal defect, one is atrial septal defect and the third is pulmonary artery stenosis with atrial septal defect. The sensitivity of the four-chamber view for the prenatal diagnosis of the congenital heart disease is 50% and the specificity is 100%.
Conclusions: The four-chamber view of fetal heart shows the majority structures of the fetal heart and the successive rate of detection is high. It has a higher sensitivity and a very high specificity for the identification of congenital heart disease. We advocate the four-chamber view of fetal heart as a basic obstetric scanning.