Application of E-flow in ultrasound examination of fetal pulmonary vein / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the value of E-flow technique in ultrasound examination of fetal pulmonary vein.Methods The pulmonary veins of 332 fetus were examined using lungs as acoustic window by two-dimensional echocardiography(2DE), color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and E-flow.Visualization ratios of the three methods were compared.Results The fetal pulmonary veins were displayed as following7 cases were showed by 2DE,49 cases by CDFI and 73 cases by E-flow among 118 cases during 12 - 22 gestational weeks.The visualization ratio of E-flow was higher than that of the other two methods (P ＜0.001).Fourty-one cases were showed by 2DE, 171 cases by CDFI and 177 cases by E-flow among 214 cases during 23 - 40 gestational weeks.The visualization ratios of E-flow and CDFI were higher than that of 2DE (P ＜ 0.001).The visualization ratio of E-flow and CDFI has no distinct differrence (P ＞ 0.0167).Conclusions E-flow was sensitive to pulmonary vein blood flow and better than 2DE and CDFI in early stage of the second trimester.