Global ventricular strain values diminish with advancing gestational age. Myocardial deformation imaging is feasible in late gestation and may be useful as an adjunct for the assessment of fetal cardiac function close to birth. Copyright © 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Most obstetricians in non-tertiary facilities who responded to our survey considered 500 g and 24 weeks to be the median birthweight and gestation for active resuscitation. This is similar to recent surveys of neonatologists and obstetricians in perinatal centres. There is significant underestimation of intact and infant survival at the extremes of prematurity when compared to available Australian data. Differences towards antenatal transfer between States may represent influences of local perinatal centres.

To construct longitudinal fetal reference ranges for global longitudinal myocardial deformation (Strain and Strain Rate) of the left and right ventricles in the second half of pregnancy. Methods: A prospective, observational, longitudinal, study of 120 women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies.The participants underwent ultrasonographic scans every four weeks from enrolment (18-28 weeks) until delivery. Strain and strain rate were measured at each examination using Velocity Vector Imaging (VVI). Changes in strain and strain rate as functions of gestational age were modelled using Bayesian mixed effects models.Results: A total of 406 assessments of global longitudinal strain and strain rate were performed 120 women. Global longitudinal strain and strain rate decreased with increasing gestational age in the left ventricle. There was however, no change in strain measurements of the right ventricle over the same gestational time frame. Posterior predictive distributions were used to derive reference centiles for each week of gestational age. Conclusion:Assessment of myocardial deformation of the fetal heart is easily performed and may be useful for quantitative assessment of heart function, particularly in fetuses at risk of cardiac dysfunction.

Objectives-The aim of this study was to construct reference ranges for fetal tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) and mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) using conventional M-mode ultrasound (US) in the second half of pregnancy.Abbreviations EFW, estimated fetal weight; GA, gestational age; MAPSE, mitral annular plane systolic excursion; TAPSE, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion; US, ultrasound