Department of Pediatrics, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan.
Am J Perinatol. 2012 Jun;29(6):441-8. doi: 10.1055/s-0032-1304825. Epub 2012 Mar 7.
The goal of the present study is to carry out prospective echocardiographic measurements of intima-media thickness (IMT) in the abdominal artery of newborns.
Study subjects were 96 mothers and their newborns. We measured the adjusted IMT (aIMT, mm/mm) of newborn abdominal arteries by high-resolution ultrasound and evaluated the association of aIMT with various maternal and newborn factors.
Negative correlations were observed between aIMT and gestational age (r = - 0.678, p < 0.01) and positive correlations between aIMT and placenta-to-fetus weight ratio (r = 0.418, p < 0.01). Comparing the small-for-gestational-age (SGA) versus appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) categories, aIMT in the SGA (n = 14) was greater than in the AGA (n = 82), with values of [0.115 (0.117) mm/mm versus 0.084 (0.074) mm/mm, p < 0.01], respectively. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed with aIMT as a dependent variable, and significant correlations were noted with gestational age (R2 = 0.524, β = - 0.515, p < 0.001 for gestational age).
On the basis of these findings, we suggest that aIMT thickness is associated with placenta-to-fetus weight ratio and gestational age, and that increased values of aIMT in SGA may indicate presence of a latent link to cardiovascular disease that might otherwise go undetected in infancy.
本研究旨在对新生儿腹主动脉内中膜厚度（IMT）进行前瞻性超声心动图测量。
研究对象为 96 名母亲及其新生儿。我们使用高分辨率超声测量新生儿腹主动脉的校正 IMT（aIMT，mm/mm），并评估 aIMT 与各种母体和新生儿因素的相关性。
aIMT 与胎龄呈负相关（r = -0.678，p <0.01），与胎盘-胎儿重量比呈正相关（r = 0.418，p <0.01）。比较小于胎龄儿（SGA）与适于胎龄儿（AGA），SGA 组（n = 14）的 aIMT 大于 AGA 组（n = 82），分别为[0.115（0.117）mm/mm 与 0.084（0.074）mm/mm，p <0.01]。以 aIMT 为因变量进行多元线性回归分析，与胎龄显著相关（R2 = 0.524，β = -0.515，p <0.001）。
基于这些发现，我们认为 aIMT 厚度与胎盘-胎儿重量比和胎龄相关，SGA 中 aIMT 值的增加可能表明存在潜在的心血管疾病联系，否则在婴儿期可能无法检测到。
