Fetal Cardiac Functional Assessment by Fetal Heart Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

OBJECTIVE: We attempted to evaluate fetal cardiac activity of congenital heart disease (CHD) and normal heart fetuses by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

METHODS: We evaluated the fetal cardiac functional assessment and the blood flow of descending aorta at 34 weeks' gestation or more by MRI and compared the results with ultrasonography findings. We measured 6 normal heart fetuses and 14 CHD fetuses.

RESULTS: The ejection fraction (EF) and descending aorta blood flow in the CHD group were 76.4% ± 11.9%, 687.5 ± 303.8 mL/min by ultrasonography and 48.3% ± 7.1%, 711.4 ± 273.1 mL/min by MRI; those in the normal group were 66.9% ± 12.2%, 898.1 ± 245.9 mL/min by ultrasonography and 51.3% ± 4.2%, 911.9 ± 223.1 mL/min by MRI.

CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in descending aorta blood flow measurements between ultrasonography and MRI, but the EF showed a significant between-group difference. In the normal group, the variation of EF and blood flow measured by MRI was significantly smaller compared with those of ultrasonography.