Segmentation of points of interest during fetal cardiac assesment in the first trimester from color Doppler ultrasound

TL;DR

This study introduces a segmentation method using Zernike moments to extract features from fetal echocardiogram frames, aiding rapid classification of heart views in first trimester ultrasound for better screening.

Contribution

It presents a novel application of Zernike moments for fetal heart view segmentation and classification in early pregnancy ultrasound.

Findings

Effective feature extraction from fetal echocardiograms

Accurate classification of heart view categories

Supports obstetricians in rapid screening

Abstract

The present paper puts forward an incipient study that uses a traditional segmentation method based on Zernike moments for extracting significant features from frames of fetal echocardiograms from first trimester color Doppler examinations. A distance based approach is then used on the obtained indicators to classify frames of three given categories that should be present in a normal heart condition. The computational tool shows promise in supporting the obstetrician in a rapid recognition of heart views during screening.