Feasibility and reproducibility of fetal lung texture analysis by automatic quantitative ultrasound analysis and correlation with gestational age

Cobo T et al. – Fetal lung texture analysis measured by the AQUA software demonstrated a strong correlation with gestational age. This supports further research to explore the use of this technology to the noninvasive prediction of fetal lung maturity.

Methods

• Prospective cross–sectional observational study.
• To evaluate texture features, 957 left and right lung images in a 2D four–cardiac–chamber view plane were previously delineated from fetuses between 20 and 41 weeks of gestation.
• Quantification of lung texture was performed by the Automatic Quantitative Ultrasound Analysis (AQUA) software to extract image features.
• A standard learning approach composed of feature transformation and a regression model was used to evaluate the association between texture features and gestational age.

Results

• The association between weeks of gestation and fetal lung texture quantified by the AQUA software presented a Pearson correlation of 0.97.
• The association was not influenced by delineation parameters such as region of interest (ROI) localization, ROI size, right/left lung selected or sonographic parameters such as ultrasound equipment or transducer used.

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