Minute Stroke Distance is a More Reproducible Measurement Than Cardiac Output in the Assessment of Fetal Ventricular Systolic Function

Echocardiographic quantification of fetal cardiac output (CO) aids clinical decision-making in the management of various cardiac and extracardiac diseases. Small variability in measuring semilunar valve dimension significantly reduces the reproducibility of the calculated CO. We propose minute stroke distance or velocity-time integral (VTI) as a more reproducible measure reflecting fetal ventricular systolic function. We hypothesized that right and left ventricular minute VTI increase predictably with estimated fetal weight (EFW) and are more reproducible than CO.

Source: Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography - August 13, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Heather Y. Sun, Elif Seda Selamet Tierney, Theresa A. Tacy, Rajesh Punn Tags: Clinical Investigations Source Type: research