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Updated: Dec 29, 2025
Author Spotlight: Establishment and Confirmation of a Postnatal Right Ventricular Volume Overload Mouse Model
Published on: June 9, 2023
Autopsy and postnatal follow-up of prenatally diagnosed ventricular outpouchings
Min Zheng1, Lin Sun1, Xiaowei Liu1
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Fetal Heart Disease & Echocardiography Department, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Objectives:
Prenatal ventricular outpouchings (VOs), which include congenital ventricular aneurysms (CAs) and congenital ventricular diverticula (CD), are very rare. We describe the features and outcomes of prenatal VOs diagnosed over a 4-year period.
Methods:
Retrospective cohort study of cases of prenatal diagnoses of CAs and CD at our center between June 2014 and January 2018. The prenatal and postnatal echocardiogram data were reviewed, and telephone follow-up was conducted of liveborn cases.
Results:
A total of 25 VOs were identified. Two were lost to follow-up, 15 chose termination of pregnancy, and eight resulted in livebirths. Only two cases underwent autopsy: Histopathology showed that the CA wall was substituted by collagen fibers. At follow-up, none of the eight liveborn babies experienced adverse events, and three VOs near the tricuspid annulus almost disappeared, though one was extremely large.
Conclusions:
In our center, all liveborn babies with VO had good prognoses. We hypothesize that VOs located near the right ventricular annulus may be caused by prenatally unbalanced pressure, given their decrease in size after birth when the right heart pressure declines.
