Anomalies in the fetal heart disease

Abstract

Introduction: Fetus heart is the most difficult viscera to be studied, due to the fact that it is a moving organ with a complex anatomy and an important amount of possible anomalies.
Objective: To provide the specialists devoted to the prenatal diagnose with a review of the possible causes that modify the fetus heart size.
Methods: The heart size is evaluated from an echocardiographic image of its four chambers, which is obtained in an ultrasonic ¨scanning¨ from the abdomen to the thorax. When the size is normal, it occupies one third of the fetal thorax and the cardiac circumference is roughly equal to half the thorax circumference throughout the pregnancy.
Results: Heart size anomalies could be caused by a drop or an increase of the cardiothoracic radius. It is very important to define whether the increase is due to a global growth of the heart or to an affected atrial or ventricular cavity, or both. Size decreases will always be connected to an intrathoracic compression.
Conclusions: Echocardiographic assessment of the fetal heart is possible in almost all cases and provides a valuable element to the fetus prenatal testing.