M. Gábor, m. Križko jr., p. Papcun, m. Redecha, a. totka, v. Ferianec, m. Dráb, k. Holomáň
Objective: We aim to describe the measurement of the foetal adrenal glands using
simple 2D ultrasound, to compare it in a various gestational age and to describe its
potential like preterm delivery predictor.
Methods: In a prospective case-control study of 64 patients (32 imminent preterm
births and 32 controls) using strict criteria we performed the measurement of standard
ultrasound markers of preterm birth and anteroposterior distance of the foetal
adrenal gland in the simple B mode. The statistical significance was analysed using
Statsdirect 3.0, ROC curves were used to define sensitivity, specificity and the optimum
cut-off point.
Results: We confirmed the significant correlation of the increasing diameters of
the whole gland (APAG) (p=0.02) and circumference of the gland (AG–CIRC)
(p=0.00009) with the increasing gestational age. The percentual representation of
the foetal zone revealed significant changes between the patients delivered premature
and control groups (p< 0.0000001). The ideal cut-off of the percentual representation
of the foetal zone like the marker of preterm delivery before 37th week was
45.07% with the sensitivity 87.5% and specificity 85.42%
Conclusions: The B mode simple percentage of the central foetal adrenal gland zone
by imminent preterm births can be applied as an additional marker in prediction
of the preterm en_delivery.