Fetal Echocardiography in the First Trimester of Pregnancy

Objectives To review the recent evidence on first trimester screening and diagnosis of congenital heart diseases. Materials and methods PubMed (Medline) searches of the current evidence-based publications concerning fetal echocardiography in the first trimester of the pregnancy. Results Studies evaluating detection rates and the influencing factors of the fetal echocardiography in the first trimester of the pregnancy were identified (Table 1). Conclusions First-trimester ultrasound examination of the fetal heart allows identification of more than half of fetuses affected by major cardiac pathology. First trimester screening should follow structured anatomical protocols and consider the introduction of outflow-tract views and color-flow Doppler, as this would improve detection rates of fetal cardiac pathology.