SlowflowHD for Evaluation of Congenital Heart Anomaly at 11–13+6 Weeks of Gestation

SlowflowHD (GE Healthcare, Voluson Expert 22, Zipf, Austria) is the latest Doppler technology, which can depict fetal small peripheral vessels, 1-6 fetal organ microvasculature, 1,3,4 and placental microvasculature. 7he distinct characteristics of this technique are a high display frame rate, high-line density (high resolution), and good sensitivity. 1,3SlowflowHD can also reveal tiny normal embryonic heart 8 and fetal cardiac structures in the normal heart and congenital heart anomalies [9][10][11][12][13] in the first trimester of pregnancy.In this case study, we demonstrate the adjunctive use of SlowflowHD to improve our capability to prenatally diagnose congenital heart anomalies at 11-13 +6 weeks of gestation. MaterIals a n d MethodsTransabdominal SlowflowHD (GE Healthcare, Voluson Expert 22 BT 24, Zipf, Austria) scans were performed for first-trimester fetal screening at 11-13 +6 weeks of gestation.The zoom was set to maximum (4) for the observation of fetal hearts.The pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was set at 0.37-0.7 kHz, the frame rate at 28-44 Hz, and the wall motion filter to "mid1 or mid2."The thermal index (TI) was set at 0.2, 0.4, or 0.6, and mechanical index (MI) at 0.7 or 0.9.After the examination, cine data were examined frame-by-frame to 1,