title: Accuracy of telediagnosis of fetal heart disease using ultrasound images transmitted via the internet.
abstract: We verified the feasibility of telediagnosis of fetal disease by (i) grading telediagnosis by a pediatric cardiologist into five confidence levels; and (ii) comparison of fetal telediagnosis with hands-on fetal diagnosis or postnatal diagnosis. In 114 patients suspected of having heart disease (real time, n = 15; recorded image transmission, n = 99), 79 patients were in level 5 (excellent), 17 in level 4 (good), eight in level 3 (fair), 10 in level 2 (poor), and no patients in level 1 (bad). The average was 4.5, and in 96 patients (84% of all) telediagnosis was accurate (above 4), whereas in 18 patients it was inaccurate (level 2 or 3). In re-examination of 25 patients, telediagnosis was confirmed in patients in level 4 and 5, whereas heart disease was missed in patients in levels 2 or 3. The correct diagnosis matched the high confidence level of a specialist based on recognizable transmitted images.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Saitama Children's Medical Center, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hishitani
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Yukinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugamoto
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogawa
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000196:embryology*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017216:Telemedicine; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal
keywords: fetal cardiac screening; fetal diagnosis; medical link; telediagnosis; ultrasound diagnosis