Thoracic Biometry in Patients with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

TL;DR

This study uses MRI to measure chest dimensions in babies with a birth defect called congenital diaphragmatic hernia, helping doctors assess disease severity.

Contribution

The study provides new biometric data from MRI scans to evaluate thoracic development in CDH patients.

Findings

Most thoracic measurements showed Gaussian distribution and predictive alterations.

Statistical significance was found in most correlations except for thoracic anterior-posterior diameter and volume.

MRI is shown to be a reliable method for thoracic biometry when other techniques are not feasible.

Abstract

This is a retrospective study investigating biometric measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). CDH is one of the more common causes of pulmonary hypoplasia, with grave consequences for the fetus. Inclusion criteria were patients diagnosed with CDH as the only observed anomaly, who underwent MRI examination after the second-trimester morphology ultrasound. The patients came from three university hospitals in Bucharest, Romania. In total, 19 patients were included in the study after applying exclusion criteria. Comparing the observed values of the thoracic transverse diameter, the thoracic anterior–posterior diameter, the thoracic circumference, the thoracic area, and the thoracic volume with values from the literature, we observed a predictive alteration of these parameters, with most showing Gaussian distribution. We observed statistical significance for most of our correlations, except between the observed and expected thoracic anterior–posterior diameters and the observed and expected thoracic volume values. This is very helpful when complex studies that can calculate the pulmonary volume cannot be obtained, as in the case of movement artifacts, and allows the clinicians to better assess the severity of the disease. MRI follow-up in CDH cases is a necessity, as it offers the most accurate thoracic biometry.

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