Abstract
Doppler techniques including Colour Flow Doppler, Spectral Doppler and more recently Tissue Doppler are fundamental to comprehensive fetal echocardiography. Meticulous attention to technique, including angle of insonation and correct Doppler settings will result in highly reproducible and accurate data. Incorrect transducer selection, poor angle of insonation and inappropriate gain or scale settings will result in poor quality and possible inaccurate data.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker DW, Rubenstein SA, Lorch GS. Pulsed Doppler echocardiography: principles and applications. Am J Med. 1977;63:69–80.
D’Hooge J, Mertens LL. Ultrasound physics. In: Echocardiography in pediatric and congenital heart disease. 2nd ed. Chichester; 2016. p. 3–18.
de Carvalho JS, Allan LD, Chaoui R, Copel JA, DeVore GR. ISUOG Practice Guidelines (updated): sonographic screening examination of the fetal heart. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2013;41:348–59.
Groenenberg IA, Hop WC, Wladimiroff JW. Doppler flow velocity waveforms in the fetal cardiac outflow tract: reproducibility of waveform recording and analysis. Ultrasound Med Biol. 1991;17:583–7.
Hernandez-Andrade E, Benavides-Serralde JA, Cruz-Martinez R, Welsh A, Mancilla-Ramirez J. Evaluation of conventional Doppler fetal cardiac function parameters: E/A ratios, outflow tracts, and myocardial performance index. Fetal Diagn Ther. 2012;32(1–2):22–9.
Lee W, Allan L, Carvalho JS, Chaoui R, Copel J, Devore G, Hecher K, Munoz H, Nelson T, Paladini D, Yagel S. ISUOG consensus statement: what constitutes a fetal echocardiogram? Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2008;32:239–42.
Lenz F, Chaoui R. Reference ranges for Doppler-assessed pulmonary venous blood flow velocities and pulsatility indices in normal human fetuses. Prenat Diagn. 2002;22:786–91.
Miyatake K, Mitsunori M, Kinoshita N, Izumi S, Owa M, Takao S, Sakakibara H, Nimura Y. Clinical applications of a new type of real-time two-dimensional Doppler flow imaging system. Am J Cardiol. 1984;54:857–68.
Reed KL, Meijboom EJ, Sahn DJ, Scagnelli SA, Valdes-Cruz LM, Shenker L. Cardiac Doppler flow velocities in human fetuses. Circulation. 1986;73:41–6.
Reeder GS, Currie PJ, Hagler DJ, Tajik AJ, Seward JB. Use of Doppler techniques (continuous-wave, pulsed-wave, and color flow imaging) in the noninvasive hemodynamic assessment of congenital heart disease. Mayo Clin Proc. 1986;61:725–44.
van Splunder P, Stijnen T, Wladimiroff JW. Fetal atrioventricular flow-velocity waveforms and their relation to arterial and venous flow-velocity waveforms at 8 to 20 weeks of gestation. Circulation. 1996;94:1372–8.
Vigneswaran TV, Zidere V, Miller OI, Simpson JM, Sharland GK. Usefulness of the prenatal echocardiogram in fetuses with isolated transposition of the great arteries to predict the need for balloon atrial septostomy. Am J Cardiol. 2017;119(9):1463–7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Electronic Supplementary Material
Full sweep of normal fetal heart with superimposed colour Flow Doppler from situs, through the four-chamber view, left and right outflow tracts and finally into the three-vessel view. Orientation: spine posterior, fetal left to right of screen (MP4 21136 kb)
Five-chamber (LVOT) view, but focussing on pulmonary veins, showing simultaneous display of 2D grey-scale and colour flow Doppler. Orientation: spine to right of screen, Left ventricle inferior (MP4 3888 kb)
Four chamber view focussing on inlets. Red signals represent inflow across mitral (lowermost) and tricuspid (uppermost) valves, narrow blue jet represents tricuspid regurgitation. Orientation: spine posterior, fetal left to right of screen (MP4 4215 kb)
Left ventricular outflow tract view with red signal showing normal velocity anterograde flow across the aortic valve. Orientation: spine to right of screen, left ventricle inferior (MP4 3528 kb)
Right ventricular outflow tract/pulmonary artery view. Left panel shows 2D greyscale, right panel shows simultaneous Colour Flow Doppler. Initially showing main pulmonary artery with normal anterograde flow, sweeping slightly more superiorly the branch pulmonary arteries clearly seen. Orientation: spine to left of screen, right side uppermost (MP4 3880 kb)
Three Vessel View. Orientation: spine lowermost on screen, fetal left on right side of screen. The three vessels; the superior caval vein is seen in cross section as a dark circle, next the aorta and then pulmonary artery are seen forming a V-shape with apex to the (fetal) left of spine. Colour Flow Doppler shows anterograde flow with uniform velocity, in both aorta and pulmonary artery (MP4 3808 kb)
Three Vessel View. Orientation: spine lowermost on screen, fetal left on right side of screen. There is forward flow in the aorta but proximal pulmonary artery shows (red) retrograde Colour Flow Doppler as supply comes from arterial duct due to pulmonary valve atresia (MP4 9001 kb)
Sagittal aortic arch view. Orientation; spine uppermost, cephalad to left of screen, caudal to right of screen. Three major aorto-pulmonary collateral arteries are seen arising from thoracic descending aorta, in this case due to pulmonary atresia (MP4 4816 kb)
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Miller, O.I. (2018). Use of Doppler Techniques in Fetal Echocardiography. In: Simpson, J., Zidere, V., Miller, O.I. (eds) Fetal Cardiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77461-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77461-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77460-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77461-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)