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Objective: To establish reference ranges of the fetal adrenal gland (AG) and fetal zone (FZ) volumes using three-dimensional ultrasound (3DUS).Methods: We performed a prospective cross-sectional study with 204 normal singleton pregnancies between 24 and 37 + 6 weeks of gestation. The fetal AG and FZ volumes were obtained using the virtual organ computer-aided analysis method with a 30° rotation. To establish reference ranges as the function of gestational age (GA), quantile regression was performed with the adjusted coefficient of determination (R2). Intra- and inter-observer repeatability was performed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).Results: The mean results of fetal AG and FZ values were 0.42 cm3 (0.04-1.22) and 0.10 cm3 (0.02-0.47), respectively. The best-fit quantile regression models for fetal AG and FZ volumes as the function of GA were in first-degree models: AG = -0.937 + 0.041 × GA (R2 = 0.124) and FZ = -0.201 + 0.009 × GA (R2 = 0.127), respectively. We observed good intra-observer repeatability of fetal AG and FZ volumes, with an ICC of 0.996 and 0.989, respectively. We also observed good inter-observer repeatability, with an ICC of 0.972 and 0.966 for AG and FZ, respectively.Conclusion: The reference ranges of AG and FZ volumes using 3DUS between 24 and 37 + 6 weeks of gestation were established and exhibited good repeatability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To verify the correlation of fetal cerebellar volume by three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) with other indices of fetal growth in normal fetuses. Methods. This was a longitudinal prospective study involving 52 normal pregnant women between 20 and 32 weeks of gestation. The assessments of the fetal cerebellar volume were carried out at intervals of two weeks, and the method used was VOCAL (virtual organ computer-aided analysis) with a 30° rotation angle. At each assessment, the following biometric indices were evaluated using the two-dimensional method: biparietal diameter, head circumference, transverse cerebellar diameter, femur length, and estimated fetal weight. We used Pearson's correlation coefficient to evaluate the correlation between fetal cerebellar volume and these indices; we also used polynomial regression analysis with fetal cerebellar volume as the dependent variable and the other indices as the independent variable. Results. The fetal cerebellar volume was highly correlated with gestational age (r = 0.94; p < 0.001) and with all other fetal growth indices (p < 0.001). Conclusions. The assessment of the fetal cerebellar volume by 3D US is an important tool to evaluate fetal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]