Fetal Facial Abnormalities: From 2D Sonography to HDlive and HDlive Silhouette Mode

Fetal face examination is essential to complete a full anatomical scan. Two-dimensional (2D) sonography is the basic standardized tool used. The anatomical nature of the fetal face should be accurately judged along with the exclusion of all possible anomalies, but this is sometimes difficult to achieve with 2D sonography alone. Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound provides detailed data on the fetal face. Many studies showed its superiority for detecting anomalies that were missed by 2D sonography. HDlive provides life-like images of the fetal face, and the HDlive silhouette mode provides hologram-like images of structures of interest. In this article, the development of ultrasound from 2D to conventional 3D and new rendering modes, such as HDlive and the HDlive silhouette mode will be presented, highlighting studies comparing the benefits and advantages of each of these new techniques over conventional 2D sonography for detecting fetal facial anomalies.