Related Experiment Videos
Serial fetal lung volume measurement using three-dimensional ultrasound
A Bahmaie1, S W Hughes, T Clark
1Department of Obstetrics, Guy's Hospital, London, UK.
Objective:
To establish reference intervals for fetal lung growth.
Design:
Longitudinal observational study.
Subjects:
Fifty-eight women with initially uncomplicated singleton pregnancies were recruited from the antenatal population of a teaching hospital. Four women were excluded from the final analysis because of complications arising in their pregnancy.
Methods:
Each subject was serially scanned at monthly intervals. At each visit lung volume was measured using an ultrasound-based computerized three-dimensional imaging system. Multilevel models were used to determine conditional and unconditional reference intervals.
Results:
Reference intervals for fetal lung growth were derived. Fetal lung volume increases in a non-linear way with gestation.
Conclusions:
Our computerized system has the capacity to be used in conjunction with any standard two-dimensional ultrasound scanner in order to measure volume. Lung volume measurement may be useful in predicting pulmonary hypoplasia.