ABSTRACT
Gastrointestinal abnormalities tend to be identified in the late second and early third trimesters of pregnancy except in cases of abdominal wall defects or hyperechogenic bowel. The main areas of relevance are with respect to quantifying bowel echogenicity, characterizing abdominal wall defects, assessing liver volume, and assessing abdominal vasculature, with isolated reports on other gastrointestinal abnormalities. Echogenic bowel is a subjective sonographic finding that is affected by the machine settings, such as employment of tissue harmonics. One of the most investigated areas on the use of volume sonography in the gastrointestinal tract is in cases of abdominal wall defects. One of the main limitations for the evaluation of the gastrointestinal tract is that most abnormalities are late appearing, first seen in the late second and early third trimesters. Liver volume may play a role in identifying fetuses with intrauterine growth restriction.
