3-D Ultrasound

3-D Scans

3-D ultrasound is often used to create “pretty pictures” of fetal faces. It can also image other structures of interest (e.g., hand, foot, ear). The long term potential of 3-D ultrasound is to improve imaging of fine anatomical details.

Face at 32 weeks

Face at 20 weeks

Face at 16 weeks

Cleft Lip

Capture & Editing (Acuson Sequoia)

The 3-D image is created by first capturing a sequence of frames that covers the features to be images. For a face, the sequence is usually a scan through the face in a coronal plane. A region of interest is usually selected that excludes irrelevant portions of the images. The software generates a “virtual 3-D” image by process the series of 2-D images.

The 3-D image can be further edited to remove some overlying or obscuring structures. In this example the face is first rotated to the left, then the features lying over the left side of the face are erased. The face is rotated back and remaining distracting features are removed. The editing improves the aesthetic qualities of the picture, but the underlying facial features were not captured by the original scan, so they still appear as though in shadow.

Club Foot, Bilateral (3D)

2D image

3D image

Normal foot (3D)

Table of Contents

3-D Scans

Capture & Editing (Acuson Sequoia)

Club Foot, Bilateral (3D)

Other Examples: