Establishing Reference Intervals for Normal Fetal Lung Biological Parameters at 21–40 Weeks of Gestation in the Chinese Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

(1) Background: There is no reliable way to assess antenatal fetal pulmonary hypoplasia; however, the biological parameters of the fetal lung can help in evaluating fetal lung development. This study aimed to establish the reference intervals for normal fetal lung biological parameters at 21–40 weeks among the Chinese population. (2) Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of Chinese groups, and included a total of 1388 normal single pregnant women at 21–40 weeks’ gestation. We selected 2134 images of a standard four-chamber view (4CV). ImageJ software (Release 2.14.0) was used to measure the left and right lung areas using a manual tracing method; the elliptic function key was used to measure the fetal thoracic circumference (TC), thoracic area (TA), head circumference (HC), heart area (HA), and abdominal circumference (AC). Based on the above measurements, the following parameters were calculated: lung area to head circumference ratio (LHR), total lung area (TLA), TLA/Weight (mm2/g), cardiothoracic ratio (CTR), lung–thoracic area ratio (TLA/TA), lung–heart area ratio (TLA/HA), TC/AC, and TC/HC. (3) Results: The left and right lung areas and LHRs positively correlated with gestational age (R2 = 0.85, 0.88, 0.66, 0.71, p < 0.001). From 21–40 weeks, the left and right lung areas and TLA increased by about 3.33 times, 3.16 times, and 3.22 times, respectively. The means of left and right LHRs increased by about 1.94 times and 1.84 times, respectively. TLA/Weight (mm2/g) was weakly correlated with gestational age, while CTR, TLA/TA, TLA/HA, TC/AC, and TC/HC had no significant correlation with gestational age. There was no statistically significant difference in fetal lung parameters between different genders of newborns, p > 0.05. (4) Conclusions: Our study establishes the reference intervals for normal Chinese fetal lung biological parameters at 21–40 weeks. Moreover, the reference intervals apply to fetuses of different genders. This paper can provide a reference for the prenatal non-invasive assessment of fetal pulmonary hypoplasia.