The clinical research of Z-scores in assessing fetal coarctation of aorta / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To develop Z-scores for the aortic arch in normal fetuses as a reference for fetuses with suspected coarctation of aorta(CoA).Methods:The aortic arch inner diameters of 610 normal fetuses and 59 CoA fetuses from May 2010 to March 2015 in the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University were measured at the long axis of the aortic arch view. Gestational age(GA), femur length(FL) as the independent variable, the aortic arch inner diameters as the dependent variable, Z-scores were created relating the aortic arch inner diameters to the GA and FL. Z-score=[ln(measured diameter)-ln(predicted diameter)]/root MSE. Z-scores of the CoA fetuses were calculated with the above regression, and compared with the Z-scores of the control group.Results:A simple linear regression model was the best description of the data in each case and correlations between FL and the aortic arch inner diameters were excellent ( P<0.001). There was no significant difference in Z-scores calculated with FL or GA as independent variables ( P>0.05). Z-scores of the control group was between -2 and + 2, Z-scores of the CoA group was significantly lower and below -2( P<0.001). Conclusions:Z-scores of fetal aortic arch are sensitive indicators of fetal coarctation, and are of clinical importance for the diagnosis and follow-up study of CoA.