Wiley, Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 4(49), p. 549-552
DOI: 10.1002/uog.17346
Full text: Unavailable
Facial clefts of the lip and alveolar ridge are usually evaluated with conventional ultrasound imaging. However, assessment of the extension of the defect into the palate and the detection of isolated clefts of the secondary palate is often not always possible due to poor acoustic windows. Nevertheless, knowledge of the extent of the cleft has significant prognostic implications in terms of pregnancy choices, surgical and functional outcome. Newly developed three-dimensional (3D) technologies offer the opportunity to develop novel imaging techniques for the evaluation of the secondary palate, although these have not been objectively compared. Crystal Vue (CV) is a recently developed ultrasound 3D post processing rendering technology based on image-contrast enhancement which is capable of preserving context and surface information. In this study we qualitatively describe its performance in the assessment of the fetal lip and palate and compare our findings to those reported using other 3D methods.