Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Ultrasound imaging of EIF (echogenic intracrdiac focus):

  
This 23 week old fetus showed a echogenic focus in the left ventricle, within the mitral valve. These ultrasound video clips show the echogenic intracardiac focus in detail despite the cardiac pulsations. These foci are not uncommon in Asians and some statistics state that these may be seen in as many as 30 % of the fetuses in        Asians. See: http://www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/reprint/17/2/127.pdf
Here is one ultrasound video of this pathology:

                                                                               The vast majority of fetuses with anomaly have normal karyotyping and hence echogenic intracardiac foci are considered a normal variant. However, the importance of the presence of EIF lies in the fact that there is a small risk of aneuploidy in such fetuses. This risk increases with maternal age (after the age of 35 years).

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