SONOGRAPHY OF THE FETAL HEART - NORMAL VARIANTS AND PITFALLS

Sonographic evaluation of the fetal heart is an important part, of obs tetric sonography. The sonographer and sonologist should be familiar w ith the sonographic appearance of the normal fetal heart and with comm on structural abnormalities. Occasionally, normal structures in or adj acent to the fetal heart may simulate an abnormality. Although one sho uld seek consultative sonography in instances of uncertain or question able findings, unnecessary referral and concern may be avoided in some cases if the sonologist is familiar with normal variants and pitfalls . In this pictorial essay, we present several such pitfalls that we an d others have observed in the four-chamber view (Fig. 1) and in views of the ventricular outflow tracts (Figs. 2 and 3).