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The use of 3D ultrasound to investigate fetal bone development

The use of 3D ultrasound to investigate fetal bone development
The use of 3D ultrasound to investigate fetal bone development
Epidemiological studies suggest impaired fetal skeletal development has lifelong consequences for bone health. To examine the feasibility of using 3-dimensional ultrasound (3DUS) to investigate influences on fetal femur development, we obtained volume datasets of the uppermost fetal thigh at 19 and 34 weeks gestation in 517 women in a population-based survey of maternal nutrition. In addition to the standard measure of femur length, we derived femoral cross-sectional areas and volume from the volume datasets. Coefficients of variation for intra-operator variability in femur length were 0.6% at 19 weeks and 0.4% at 34 weeks; corresponding coefficients of variation for distal femoral cross-sectional area were 4.4% at 19 weeks and 3.2% at 34 weeks, showing greater measurement variability with a more complex technique. Intra-operator variability for femur volume measurement triplets at 19 and 34 weeks was 3.4% and 1.7%, respectively. The coefficients of variation of replicate measurements were compared with the between-subjects variation as a measure of the biological variability between fetuses: at 19 weeks between-subjects variation was 7.2% for femur length, 19.6% for distal cross-sectional area and 19.9% for femur volume. These results show a wide range of variation between subjects, which is substantially greater than the intra-operator variability. This suggests that the measurements of fetal femur size and volume are reproducible and can be used to examine biological differences between subjects, and we found that femoral volume was greater in male fetuses at 19 weeks gestation. Thus 3DUS presents a useful technique for assessing fetal skeletal development in cohort studies
45-52
Mahon, Pamela A.
5a824126-9030-4e8a-9a0e-dafb8aa280f9
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Crozier, Sarah R.
f725a749-98a7-47ba-aa6b-8d8e17c72cad
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Mahon, Pamela A.
5a824126-9030-4e8a-9a0e-dafb8aa280f9
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Crozier, Sarah R.
f725a749-98a7-47ba-aa6b-8d8e17c72cad
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd

Mahon, Pamela A., Cooper, Cyrus, Crozier, Sarah R. and Godfrey, Keith M. (2009) The use of 3D ultrasound to investigate fetal bone development. Norsk Epidemiologi [Norwegian Journal of Epidemiology], 19 (1), 45-52.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Epidemiological studies suggest impaired fetal skeletal development has lifelong consequences for bone health. To examine the feasibility of using 3-dimensional ultrasound (3DUS) to investigate influences on fetal femur development, we obtained volume datasets of the uppermost fetal thigh at 19 and 34 weeks gestation in 517 women in a population-based survey of maternal nutrition. In addition to the standard measure of femur length, we derived femoral cross-sectional areas and volume from the volume datasets. Coefficients of variation for intra-operator variability in femur length were 0.6% at 19 weeks and 0.4% at 34 weeks; corresponding coefficients of variation for distal femoral cross-sectional area were 4.4% at 19 weeks and 3.2% at 34 weeks, showing greater measurement variability with a more complex technique. Intra-operator variability for femur volume measurement triplets at 19 and 34 weeks was 3.4% and 1.7%, respectively. The coefficients of variation of replicate measurements were compared with the between-subjects variation as a measure of the biological variability between fetuses: at 19 weeks between-subjects variation was 7.2% for femur length, 19.6% for distal cross-sectional area and 19.9% for femur volume. These results show a wide range of variation between subjects, which is substantially greater than the intra-operator variability. This suggests that the measurements of fetal femur size and volume are reproducible and can be used to examine biological differences between subjects, and we found that femoral volume was greater in male fetuses at 19 weeks gestation. Thus 3DUS presents a useful technique for assessing fetal skeletal development in cohort studies

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Published date: 2009

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 68851
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/68851
PURE UUID: 4b843249-4953-443e-b40e-10f0791984b2
ORCID for Cyrus Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709
ORCID for Keith M. Godfrey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4643-0618

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Date deposited: 07 Oct 2009
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:44

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Contributors

Author: Pamela A. Mahon
Author: Cyrus Cooper ORCID iD
Author: Sarah R. Crozier

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