Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China.
Institute of Acoustics, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Comput Math Methods Med. 2020 May 1;2020:3187268. doi: 10.1155/2020/3187268. eCollection 2020.
Metabolic bone disease (MBD) is one of the major complications of prematurity. Ultrasonic backscatter technique has the potential to be a portable and noninvasive method for early diagnosis of MBD. This study firstly applied CAS to neonates, which was defined as a linear combination of the apparent integrated backscatter coefficient (AIB) and spectral centroid shift (SCS). The objective was to evaluate the feasibility of ultrasonic backscatter technique for assessing neonatal bone health using AIB, SCS, and CAS. Ultrasonic backscatter measurements at 3.5 MHz, 5.0 MHz, and 7.5 MHz were performed on a total of 505 newborns within 48 hours after birth. The values of backscatter parameters were calculated and compared among gestational age groups. Correlations between backscatter parameters, gestational age, anthropometric indices, and biochemical markers were analyzed. The optimal predicting models for CAS were determined. The results showed term infants had lower SCS and higher AIB and CAS than preterm infants. Gestational age and anthropometric indices were negatively correlated with SCS (|| = 0.45 - 0.57, < 0.001), and positively correlated with AIB (|| = 0.36 - 0.60, < 0.001) and CAS (|| = 0.56 - 0.69, < 0.001). Biochemical markers yielded weak or nonsignificant correlations with backscatter parameters. CAS had relatively stronger correlations with the neonatal variables than AIB and SCS. At 3.5 MHz and 5.0 MHz, only gestational age ( < 0.001) independently contributed to the measurements of CAS, and could explain up to 40.5% - 44.3% of CAS variation. At 7.5 MHz, the combination of gestational age ( < 0.001), head circumference ( = 0.002), and serum calcium ( = 0.037) explained up to 40.3% of CAS variation. This study suggested ultrasonic backscatter technique was feasible to evaluate neonatal bone status. CAS was a promising parameter to provide more information about bone health than AIB or SCS alone.
代谢性骨病（MBD）是早产儿的主要并发症之一。超声背散射技术有可能成为一种用于早期诊断 MBD 的便携式、非侵入性方法。本研究首次将 CAS 应用于新生儿，CAS 定义为表观积分背散射系数（AIB）和频谱质心偏移（SCS）的线性组合。目的是评估超声背散射技术在评估新生儿骨骼健康方面的可行性，使用 AIB、SCS 和 CAS。在出生后 48 小时内对总共 505 名新生儿进行了 3.5MHz、5.0MHz 和 7.5MHz 的超声背散射测量。计算了背散射参数值，并比较了各胎龄组之间的差异。分析了背散射参数与胎龄、人体测量指标和生化标志物之间的相关性。确定了用于预测 CAS 的最佳模型。结果显示，足月婴儿的 SCS 低于早产儿，而 AIB 和 CAS 则高于早产儿。胎龄和人体测量指标与 SCS 呈负相关（||=0.45-0.57， <0.001），与 AIB（||=0.36-0.60， <0.001）和 CAS（||=0.56-0.69， <0.001）呈正相关。生化标志物与背散射参数之间相关性较弱或无统计学意义。与 AIB 和 SCS 相比，CAS 与新生儿变量的相关性更强。在 3.5MHz 和 5.0MHz 时，只有胎龄（ <0.001）独立影响了 CAS 的测量，可解释高达 40.5%-44.3%的 CAS 变化。在 7.5MHz 时，胎龄（ <0.001）、头围（ =0.002）和血清钙（ =0.037）的组合可解释高达 40.3%的 CAS 变化。本研究表明，超声背散射技术可用于评估新生儿骨骼状态。与单独使用 AIB 或 SCS 相比，CAS 是一种很有前途的参数，可提供更多有关骨骼健康的信息。
