SynthesisPloS one2024
Echogenic intracardiac foci detection and location in the second-trimester ultrasound and association with fetal outcomes: A systematic literature review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does Maternal Smoking Increase the Risk of Congenital Heart Disease? Insights from a Single-Center Fetal Echocardiography Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Second trimester soft markers: still worth to be mentioned?Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2025Review
- Fetal echocardiography: A nine-year experience at a single tertiary center.Northern clinics of Istanbul · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEchogenic Intracardiac Foci (EIF) are non-structural markers identified during the routine 18-20-week foetal anomaly ultrasound scan yet their clinical significance on future outcomes for the infant is unclear.
objectiveTo examine the association between EIF and risk of preterm birth, chromosomal abnormalities, and cardiac abnormalities.
designA review across four databases to identify English language journal articles of EIF using a cohort study design. All studies were reviewed for quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist and data extracted for comparison and analysis.
results19 papers from 9 different countries were included. Combining these studies showed 4.6% (95% CI = 4.55-4.65%) of all pregnancies had EIF which was on the left in 86% of cases, on the right in 3% of cases and bilaterally in 10%. There was no evidence that EIF was associated with higher rates of preterm birth. However, it is possible that infants with EIF were more likely to be terminated rather than be born preterm as there was a 2.1% (range 0.3-4.2%) rate of termination or death of the foetus after week 20 among those with EIF. There was no evidence that EIF alone is highly predictive of chromosomal abnormalities. There was evidence that EIF is associated with higher rates of minor cardiac abnormalities (e.g. ventricular septal defect, tricuspid regurgitation or mitral regurgitation)) with 5.1% (224 of 4385) of those with EIF showing cardiac abnormalities (3.08% in retrospective studies and 17.85% in prospective studies). However, the risk of cardiac defects was only higher with right-sided EIF and where the EIF persisted into the third trimester. However, this is a rare event and would be seen in an estimated 4 per 10,000 pregnancies.
conclusionEIF alone was not associated with adverse outcomes for the infant. Only persistent EIF on the right side showed evidence of carrying a higher risk of cardiac abnormality and would warrant further follow-up.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.