Fetal Cardiac Cine MRI with Doppler US Gating in Complex Congenital Heart Disease

Purpose: To apply Doppler US (DUS)-gated fetal cardiac cine MRI in clinical routine and investigate diagnostic performance in com-plex congenital heart disease (CHD) compared with that of fetal echocardiography.Materials and Methods: In this prospective study (May 2021 to March 2022), women with fetuses with CHD underwent fetal echo-cardiography and DUS-gated fetal cardiac MRI on the same day. For MRI, balanced steady-state free precession cine images were acquired in the axial and optional sagittal and/or coronal orientations. Overall image quality was assessed on a four-point Likert scale (from 1 = nondiagnostic to 4 = good image quality). The presence of abnormalities in 20 fetal cardiovascular features was independent-ly assessed by using both modalities. The reference standard was postnatal examination results. Differences in sensitivities and specificities were determined by using a random-effects model.Results: The study included 23 participants (mean age, 32 years +/- 5 [SD]; mean gestational age, 36 weeks +/- 1). Fetal cardiac MRI was completed in all participants. The median overall image quality of DUS-gated cine images was 3 (IQR, 2.5-4). In 21 of 23 participants (91%), underlying CHD was correctly assessed by using fetal cardiac MRI. In one case, the correct diagnosis was made by using MRI only (situs inversus and congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries). Sensitivities (91.8% [95% CI: 85.7, 95.1] vs 93.6% [95% CI: 88.8, 96.2]; P = .53) and specificities (99.9% [95% CI: 99.2, 100] vs 99.9% [95% CI: 99.5, 100]; P > .99) for the detection of abnormal cardiovascular features were comparable between MRI and echocardiography, respectively.Conclusion: Using DUS-gated fetal cine cardiac MRI resulted in performance comparable with that of using fetal echocardiography for diagnosing complex fetal CHD.

Automated summary

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of DUS-gated fetal cardiac cine MRI compared with fetal echocardiography in complex congenital heart disease. The results showed that the performance of fetal cardiac MRI was comparable to that of fetal echocardiography in diagnosing complex fetal CHD.