Artificial intelligence in fetal echocardiography: Recent advances and future prospects

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cardiology

Background:

• Prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD) has advanced significantly.
• Fetal echocardiography is the primary tool, detecting ~85% of cardiac abnormalities.
• Challenges include fetal position, movement, complex anatomy, and varying physician expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the role and significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in fetal echocardiography.
• To highlight AI's potential to overcome diagnostic challenges in prenatal CHD screening.
• To discuss future solutions offered by AI in this field.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on AI applications in fetal echocardiography.
• Analysis of AI's capabilities in automating and standardizing fetal heart image display.
• Exploration of AI's impact on diagnostic accuracy and clinical workflow.

Main Results:

• AI can automate and standardize the display of diagnostic fetal heart sections.
• AI contributes to more accurate diagnoses in fetal echocardiography.
• AI integration optimizes the clinical application of fetal echocardiography for CHD.

Conclusions:

• AI plays a crucial role in improving the accuracy and efficiency of fetal echocardiography.
• AI offers solutions to overcome existing challenges in prenatal screening for CHD.
• AI is significant for the future development of prenatal cardiac diagnostics.