What defines a single-ventricle physiology on fetal echocardiography?

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Multiple Choice

What defines a single-ventricle physiology on fetal echocardiography?

The essential idea is that single-ventricle physiology means only one ventricular chamber is effectively pumping blood to both the body and the lungs. In fetal echocardiography this shows up as a dominant, single functional ventricle that gives rise to a single outflow tract, supplying both circulations rather than two distinct ventricles each serving its own circulation. Because the heart cannot create separate parallel outflows for systemic and pulmonary flows, management after birth relies on staged palliation to progressively separate the circulation (for example, procedures like the Norwood/Glenn/Fontan pathway). The other scenarios describe two-ventricle physiology or normal variants, which do not define a univentricular heart.

The essential idea is that single-ventricle physiology means only one ventricular chamber is effectively pumping blood to both the body and the lungs. In fetal echocardiography this shows up as a dominant, single functional ventricle that gives rise to a single outflow tract, supplying both circulations rather than two distinct ventricles each serving its own circulation. Because the heart cannot create separate parallel outflows for systemic and pulmonary flows, management after birth relies on staged palliation to progressively separate the circulation (for example, procedures like the Norwood/Glenn/Fontan pathway). The other scenarios describe two-ventricle physiology or normal variants, which do not define a univentricular heart.

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