Prenatal diagnosis of right-sided congenital ventricular diver-ticulum (CVD) assisted by spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) acquisition and the speckle-tracking technique to as-sess fetal cardiac function: A case report

Congenital ventricular diverticulum (CVD) is a cardiac malformation defined as an outpouching lesion of a ventricle with normal contractility and thickness, and the advancement of prenatal sonography has led to its prenatal diagnosis. In the prenatal period, CVD is reported in associa-tion with pericardial effusion, arrhythmia, and fetal hydrops or as an isolated condition. With the development of prenatal echocardiography, CVD can be diagnosed from the early stage of pregnancy, and prenatal procedures, such as pericardiocentesis, are also possible. Spatiotem-poral image correlation (STIC) acquisition, a novel approach for the clinical evaluation of fetal hearts, provides easy-to-use techniques for acquiring data from fetal hearts and helping visuali-zation with two-dimensional and three-dimensional (3D) cine sequences. Furthermore, the speckle-tracking technique enables a more comprehensive evaluation of the shape, continuity, and function of the fetal heart. These recent techniques have never been used for CVD diagnosis and evaluation. Here, we present a case of right-sided CVD, which is the first in which STIC ac-quisition and cardiac function assessment with speckle-tracking technique were used to assist in the diagnosis and evaluation.