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Relationship of the dimension of cardiac structures to body size: an echocardiographic study in normal infants and children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2008

P. E. F. Daubeney ,
E. H. Blackstone ,
R. G. Weintraub ,
Z. Slavik ,
J. Scanlon  and
S. A. Webber
P. E. F. Daubeney*
Affiliation:
Wessex Cardiothoracic Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
E. H. Blackstone
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
R. G. Weintraub
Affiliation:
Department of Cardiology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Z. Slavik
Affiliation:
Wessex Cardiothoracic Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
J. Scanlon
Affiliation:
Wessex Cardiothoracic Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
S. A. Webber
Affiliation:
Wessex Cardiothoracic Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
*
Dr Piers Daubeney, Wessex Cardiothoracic Centre, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. Tel: + 44 01703 777222; fax: +44 01703 794526.
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Abstract

Normalization of the dimensions of cardiac structures to the size of the body, using so-called Z scores, is becoming increasingly common in the management of infants and children with congenital heart disease. Current published nomograms for the ascertainment of Z scores for cardiac structures in childhood are based largely on normal data obtained in formalin-fixed hearts. Since decisions concerning management are frequently based on the findings of cross-sectional echocardiograms, the dimensions of 15 cardiac structures were measured using cross-sectional echocardiography in 125 normal infants and children. Regression equations were derived relating cardiac dimensions to the size of the body. The expression of size with the highest correlation to cardiac dimensions was body surface area. Nomograms were then developed from which the Z score of a cardiac structure could be estimated from a knowledge of the body surface area and the echocardiographically derived measurement.

Keywords

Cardiac dimensionscross-sectional echocardiographyZ scoreinfants and childrennormal values
Type
Original Articles
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , July 1999 , pp. 402 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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