Clinical and prognostic significance of detecting an intracardiac echogenic focus in the fetal and neonatal heart
The intracardiac echogenic focus, a small rounded hyperechogenic structure, which is found in the fetal cardiac ventricles in the region of their papillary muscles or chordae tendineae, executes motions together with the atrioventricular valves, so is colourfully named «a golf ball». It is more frequently visualized by prenatal ultrasound screening for congenital abnormalities in the early fetal period. This finding is assigned to ultrasound markers, the clinical value of which has remained debatable and ambiguous over the past 20 years. This paper gives the current views of the causes and mechanisms of intracardiac echogenic foci, the time course of their changes during intrauterine fetal development and after a baby’s birth.