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Morphological features of complex congenital cardiovascular anomalies in fetuses: as evaluated by cast models

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Summary

Accurate prenatal diagnosis of complex congenital cardiovascular anomalies, vascular ones in particular, is still challenging. A fetal cardiovascular cast model can provide a copy of the cardiac chambers and great vessels with normal or pathological structures. This study was aimed to demonstrate three-dimensional anatomy of complex congenital cardiovascular anomalies in fetuses by means of corrosion casting. Twenty fetuses with prenatal-ultrasound-diagnosed complex cardiovascular anomalies were enrolled in this study (19 to 35 gestational weeks). Fetal cardiovascular cast models were made by a corrosion casting technique. The specimens were injected with casting material via the umbilical vein, and then immersed in strong acid after casting fluid was solidified, to disclose the geometries of cardiovascular cavities. Nineteen cast models were successfully made from 20 specimens. The casts distinctly showed the morphological malformations and spatial relationship between cardiac chambers and great vessels. One hundred and eleven abnormalities were revealed by casting in the 19 specimens, including 34 abnormalities located in the cardiac chambers (3, 4 and 27 anomalies in the atria, atrioventricular valves and ventricles, respectively), and 77 in the great vessels (28, 20, 24 and 5 anomalies in the aorta and its branches, the pulmonary artery, the ductus arteriosus and the major veins, respectively). Corrosion casting can display three-dimensional anatomy of fetal complex cardiovascular anomalies. This improves our understanding of related pathomorphology and prenatal diagnosis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Weiping LI for his technological guidance for casting fabrication. We express our gratitude to the families who donated their stillborn fetuses for the advancement of medicine.

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Author notes

  1. The authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ultrasound, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, China

    Hai-yan Cao  (曹海燕), Yu Wang  (王 瑜), Liu Hong  (洪 柳), Wei Han  (韩 伟), Lin He  (贺 林), Yun-fei Hu  (胡云飞), Yuan Peng  (彭 源), Bin Wang  (王 斌), Jing Wang  (王 静), Wen-ying Huang  (黄文英) & Ming-xing Xie  (谢明星)

  2. Department of Ultrasound Imaging, Xiangyang First People’s Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Medicine, Xiangyang, 441000, China

    Yu Wang  (王 瑜)

  3. Laboratory of Anatomy, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Ben-cai Song  (宋本才)

  4. Department of Echocardiography, Barts Heart Centre, and Department of Medical Physics, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Jing Deng  (邓 京)

Authors
  1. Hai-yan Cao  (曹海燕)
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  2. Yu Wang  (王 瑜)
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  3. Liu Hong  (洪 柳)
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  4. Wei Han  (韩 伟)
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  5. Lin He  (贺 林)
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  6. Ben-cai Song  (宋本才)
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  7. Yun-fei Hu  (胡云飞)
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  8. Yuan Peng  (彭 源)
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  9. Bin Wang  (王 斌)
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  10. Jing Wang  (王 静)
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  11. Wen-ying Huang  (黄文英)
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  12. Jing Deng  (邓 京)
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  13. Ming-xing Xie  (谢明星)
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jing Deng  (邓 京) or Ming-xing Xie  (谢明星).

Additional information

This project was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81530056 and No. 81501494) and Hubei Province Health and Family Planning Scientific Research Project (No. WJ2015MB016).

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Cao, Hy., Wang, Y., Hong, L. et al. Morphological features of complex congenital cardiovascular anomalies in fetuses: as evaluated by cast models. J. Huazhong Univ. Sci. Technol. [Med. Sci.] 37, 596–604 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-017-1778-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-017-1778-9

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