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Development of Digital Fetal Heart Models with Virtual Ultrasound Function Based on Cardiovascular Casting and
Qi Yang1,2, Jiancheng Han1,2, Rui Wang1,2
1Echocardiography Medical Center, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
Insights
This study introduces a novel digital training method for fetal echocardiography using 3D models and virtual ultrasound. This approach enhances the understanding of congenital heart defects (CHDs) and improves diagnostic accuracy for trainees.
Area of Science:
- Medical Imaging
- Cardiovascular Science
- Medical Education
Background:
- Congenital heart defects (CHDs) remain a leading cause of infant mortality.
- Fetal echocardiography is crucial for prenatal diagnosis but faces challenges in obtaining standard views, impacting accuracy.
- Effective training methods are needed to improve fetal echocardiography skills.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel workflow for digital preservation and virtual ultrasound generation of fetal cardiac structures.
- To create a cost-effective and extensible educational tool for fetal echocardiography training.
Main Methods:
- Utilized cardiovascular casting, computed tomography (CT) scanning, and virtual ultrasound generation (using the PLUS toolkit) on three fetal heart specimens.
- Digitally preserved fetal cardiac anatomy for clear imaging via CT scans.
- Generated virtual ultrasound images to demonstrate standard and diagnostically relevant views.
Main Results:
- CT imaging after cardiovascular casting provided clear visualization of fetal cardiac anatomical structures.
- Virtually generated ultrasound images successfully replicated standard and diagnostically valuable views.
- The proposed method proved feasible, simple, cost-effective, and offered data extensibility.
Conclusions:
- The combined approach of cardiovascular casting, CT scanning, and virtual ultrasound generation offers a promising solution for fetal echocardiography training.
- This digital system can enhance trainees' understanding of fetal heart anatomy and echocardiographic views.
- The method provides a valuable educational resource for improving diagnostic accuracy in prenatal CHD detection.
Abstract:
Despite recent breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, congenital heart defects (CHDs) continue to be the leading cause of death among newborns. Fetal echocardiography is the most effective and non-invasive method for the prenatal diagnosis of CHDs. However, the challenge of obtaining standard views can lead to a low diagnostic accuracy. To explore new methods for training, the combined use of cardiovascular casting, computed tomography (CT) scanning, and virtual ultrasound generation methods was studied to preserve the cardiac structures of a fetus in digital form. The feasibility of the proposed workflow was verified by testing three fetal heart specimens collected after the termination of pregnancy. As a result, the anatomical structures were imaged clearly by a CT scan after cardiovascular casting, and the virtually generated ultrasound images based on the use of the Public software Library for UltraSound imaging research (PLUS) toolkit successfully demonstrated both the standard views and the views with diagnostic values for the visualization of the cardiovascular structures. This solution provides great data extensibility while being simple and cost-effective for end users. Therefore, the proposed method could provide a promising educational system for trainees to understand standard views of fetal echocardiography and the corresponding anatomical correlations.
