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Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine
Published in: Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine 9/2016

01-09-2016 | Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease (G Singh, Section Editor)

Evaluation and Management of Fetal Cardiac Function and Heart Failure

Authors: Erik Michelfelder, MD, Catherine Allen, MD, Lindsay Urbinelli, MD

Published in: Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine | Issue 9/2016

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Opinion statement

Two-dimensional (2D) and Doppler echocardiography has become both an essential component in the assessment of anatomic anomalies of the fetal heart and an important tool in the assessment of fetal cardiac function. Various techniques for assessing fetal cardiovascular function exist and can be used to characterize systolic and diastolic ventricular function and estimate fetal cardiac output. These techniques can be utilized to assess fetuses with cardiovascular compromise due to a number of cardiac and non-cardiac conditions, including twin-twin transfusion syndrome, high-cardiac output lesions such as fetal tumors and vascular malformations, and primary fetal cardiomyopathy. As many of these conditions can now be treated by a variety of fetal therapeutic techniques, it is now important to be able to understand and identify fetal cardiac dysfunction. Characterization of fetal cardiac dysfunction now has the potential to provide clinicians with the means to better select patients for intervention, predict outcome, and perform follow-up following fetal interventional procedures.
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Metadata
Title
Evaluation and Management of Fetal Cardiac Function and Heart Failure
Authors
Erik Michelfelder, MD
Catherine Allen, MD
Lindsay Urbinelli, MD
Publication date
01-09-2016
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine / Issue 9/2016
Print ISSN: 1092-8464
Electronic ISSN: 1534-3189
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-016-0477-3

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