Reference Ranges for Vertebral Body Areas of the Fetal Lumbosacral Spine on 3‐Dimensional Sonography Using Volume Contrast Imaging With OmniView

• Published in: Journal of ultrasound in medicine Vol. 31; no. 11; pp. 1743 - 1752
• Main Authors: Martinez, Luis Henrique, Júnior, Edward Araujo, Simioni, Christiane, Nardozza, Luciano Marcondes Machado, Moron, Antonio Fernandes
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine 01.11.2012
• Subjects: 3‐/4‐dimensional sonography; Brazil - epidemiology; Contrast Media; Female; fetal lumbosacral spine; Humans; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - standards; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - statistics & numerical data; Lumbar Vertebrae - diagnostic imaging; Lumbar Vertebrae - embryology; Lumbosacral Region - diagnostic imaging; Lumbosacral Region - embryology; Male; Organ Size; Pregnancy; reference ranges; Reference Values; reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Sacrum - diagnostic imaging; Sacrum - embryology; Sensitivity and Specificity; Software - standards; Ultrasonography, Prenatal - standards; Ultrasonography, Prenatal - statistics & numerical data; vertebral body area; volume contrast imaging
• ISSN: 0278-4297; 1550-9613
• DOI: 10.7863/jum.2012.31.11.1743

Objectives The purpose of this study was to establish reference ranges for vertebral body areas of the fetal lumbosacral spine in the coronal plane on 3‐dimensional sonography using volume contrast imaging with OmniView (GE Healthcare, Zipf, Austria). Methods An observational cross‐sectional study was conducted on 576 healthy pregnant women at gestational ages of 20 weeks to 34 weeks 6 days. Volume contrast imaging with OmniView was used to measure the vertebral body areas (L1–L5, S1, and S2) by positioning a curved line along the fetal lumbosacral spine. To create reference ranges, first‐ and second‐degree linear regression models adjusted using residual analysis and the coefficient of determination (R2) were created. To assess reproducibility, two examiners evaluated 40 random volumes using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Results The mean areas of the vertebral bodies were 102.72 (range, 25–254), 107.29 (range, 30–245), 105.10 (range, 31–231), 99.09 (range, 31–211), 87.74 (range, 11–178), 65.80 (range, 18–161), and 46.54 (range, 12–129) mm2 for L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, S1, and S2, respectively. In the intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility assessments, intraclass correlation coefficients of greater than 0.80 were found for all fetal vertebral body areas. Conclusions Reference values for fetal lumbosacral spine vertebral body areas were determined by 3‐dimensional sonography using volume contrast imaging with OmniView, and they were shown to be reproducible.