Spatio‐temporal image correlation (STIC) is a new approach for clinical assessment of the fetal heart. It offers an easy to use technique to acquire data from the fetal heart and to aid in visualization with both two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional (3D) cine sequences. The acquisition is performed in two steps: first, images are acquired by a single, automatic volume sweep. Second, the system analyzes the image data according to their spatial and temporal domain and processes an online dynamic 3D image sequence that is displayed in a multiplanar reformatted cross‐sectional display and/or a surface rendered display. The examiner can navigate within the heart, re‐slice, and produce all of the standard image planes necessary for a comprehensive diagnosis. The advantages of STIC for use in evaluation of the fetal heart are as follows: the technique delivers a temporal resolution which corresponds to a B‐mode frame rate of approximately 80 frames/s; it provides the examiner with an unlimited number of images for review; it allows for correlation between image planes that are perpendicular to the main image acquisition plane; it may shorten the evaluation time when complex heart defects are suspected; it enables the reconstruction of a 3D rendered image that contains depth and volume which may provide additional information that is not available from the thin multiplanar image slices (e.g. for pulmonary veins, septal thickness); it lends itself to storage and review of volume data by the examiner or by experts at a remote site; it provides the examiner with the ability to review all images in a looped cine sequence. Copyright © 2003 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background and objective: The prenatal detection of congenital heart defects remains one of the most difficult challenges for the sonologist/sonographer when performing the second‐ or third‐trimester screening examination. The four‐chamber view has been used for a number of years as the primary screening image for detection of heart defects, but the inclusion of the right and left outflow tracts increases the detection of cardiac malformations. One of the difficulties, however, is obtaining and interpreting two‐dimensional images of the outflow tracts. This paper reviews a new technique using three‐dimensional (3D) multiplanar imaging that allows the examiner to identify the outflow tracts within a few minutes of acquiring the 3D volume dataset by rotating the volume dataset around the x‐ and y‐axes.Methods: 3D multiplanar imaging of the fetal heart using static 3D or spatio‐temporal image correlation (STIC) imaging allows the examiner to obtain a volume of data that can be manipulated along the x‐ and y‐axes using reference points from the four‐chamber view, five‐chamber view, three‐vessel view at the level of the bifurcation of the pulmonary arteries, and three‐vessel view at the level of the transverse aortic arch and trachea.Results: The full length of the main pulmonary artery, ductus arteriosus, aortic arch and superior vena cava could be identified easily in the normal fetus by rotating the volume dataset along the x‐ and y‐axes. The vessels were identified using the four‐chamber view, the five‐chamber view, and the two three‐vessel views. The technique was useful in identification of d‐transposition of the great vessels and evaluation of the outflow tracts in hypoplastic left heart syndrome.Conclusion: 3D multiplanar evaluation of the fetal heart allows the examiner to identify the outflow tracts using a simple technique that requires only rotation around x‐ and y‐axes from reference images obtained in a transverse sweep through the fetal chest. Copyright © 2004 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.