The aim of this study was evaluating the value of McGoon index and multiple parameters measured by fetal echocardiography in assessing fetal pulmonary vascular development.
In our investigation involving 71 fetuses with decreased pulmonary blood flow or pulmonary atresia in Group B, we observed that their MGI, PA-Zs, and PA/AO ratios were significantly smaller than those in the normal group. Conversely, the study of 21 fetuses with reduced or detached aortic flow in Group C revealed significantly greater values for MGI, PA-Zs, and PA/AO ratios than those in the other two groups. These findings, in conjunction with previous studies on CHD fetuses [9–11], suggest that fetal MGI serves as a valuable indicator for evaluating PA development during the prenatal period, which has great implications for the dynamic evaluation of cardiovascular development in advanced intrauterine CHD fetuses, guiding disease analysis and prognosis, and providing reasonable information for prenatal consultations. Subgroup analysis in Group B indicated that fetuses with backward DA flow had smaller values for PA, PA-Zs, LPA + RPA, and MGI than the forward DA perfusion group. This implies that reverse DA flow may signify more severe PS or pulmonary atresia, suggesting a more substantial impact on fetal pulmonary vascular development.
In this study, we established a mean MGI of 1.37 ± 0.21 for a large sample of normal mid-to-late pregnant fetuses. Unlike previous studies, our normal fetal sample size covered the entire GA range for fetal echocardiography and was categorized into four groups based on GA. We observed no significant differences in fetal MGI across different GAs, indicating that MGI does not change with GA. In normal developing fetuses, quantitative indicators reflecting cardiovascular development, such as PA and its branches and AO growth, and non-cardiovascular parameters reflecting fetal growth and development, including BPD, HC, FL, and AC, are clearly correlated with the increase in GA, which has been confirmed in several studies that applied Z-score [12–15]. Because MGI is the ratio of LPA + RPA inner diameter to DAO, which reflects the relative proportion of fetal PA and AO development, the results of MGI and Z-scores are consistent. In normal developing fetuses, MGI remains relatively stable within the normal range and does not exhibit variation with GA. This contrasts with Guo et al.'s findings [16] in a study of 110 normal fetuses and 54 fetuses with reduced pulmonary blood flow CHD, where CTR, FLV/EFW, and MGI showed significant differences between the two groups. The variation in results may be attributed to the broader spectrum of diseases included in our study than the more specific inclusion criteria of TOF, PA-VSD, and PA-IVVS in Guo et al.’s study [16].
Evaluation of pulmonary vascular development is crucial in the surgical context, especially for PS, as it strongly influences postoperative outcomes. Laban et al. [17] reported that compared to neonates with respiratory distress syndrome(RDS), healthy neonates had significantly higher FLVs (p < 0.001).However, YEabdalla et al. [18] recommended that combining the mean FLV to the other parameters rather than using this measure alone .Clinical MGI assessment is a common practice in postnatal children and adults, providing an overview of pulmonary vascular bed growth in CHD patients. A low MGI often indicates lung hypoplasia and is associated with a poor prognosis [2, 10]. Higher incidences of surgical death and heart failure have been reported in patients with PA dysplasia [1]. MGI has also been studied in children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Several studies [4, 19, 20] have suggested that among various prognostic factors in children with CDH, the extent of lung development is crucial, and the severity of pulmonary hypoplasia is considered the main limiting factor for survival, whereas MGI is positively correlated with pulmonary vascular development, serving as a prognostic factor for survival.
From the follow-up in our study, we observed that patients with PS alone and MGI < 1.2 had a favorable prognosis. Notably, one patient with MGI 0.96 did not undergo surgery throughout the follow-up period. Similarly, two patients with TOF and MGI < 1.2 (MGI 1.17, 1.05) did not require surgical intervention and were generally in good condition. However, two deaths occurred due to TOF (MGI 1.20) and hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS). This suggests that the cardiovascular structure and functional status of fetuses with severe PS can vary significantly postnatally, necessitating individualized treatment strategies based on each child's PA development [9]. Despite the overall better prognosis in isolated PS, MGI may still decrease.
While MGI can be obtained through various methods such as cardiovascular angiography, CT, and echocardiography [21], the unique nature of the fetus places fetal echocardiography at the forefront of prenatal evaluation for cardiovascular structure and hemodynamics. Although MRI is utilized for the prenatal assessment of fetal brain and spine structures, its application in diagnosing fetal cardiovascular malformations is limited. The main challenges in fetal MGI measurement via echocardiography are obtaining clear images of the LPA, RPA, and DAO. This is dependent on the sonographer's ability to obtain standardized sections, which, in our study, was carried out by highly experienced physicians. Quantitative measurements of LPA, RPA, and DAO inner diameters were averaged from at least three measurements, resulting in a very good within-group correlation coefficient for each parameter. This ensured the high repeatability and accuracy of MGI measurements in our study.
Our study has some limitations. First, the measurement of fetal MGI is challenging in early pregnancy and was, therefore, excluded from our study. With ongoing advancements in US technology, future studies may include more early pregnancies to explore the broader application of MGI throughout gestation. Additionally, this study follows a cross-sectional design, and no prenatal follow-up was conducted for the studied case group. Conducting multiple follow-ups for CHD fetuses throughout pregnancy could provide a more comprehensive understanding of MGI patterns and its utility during fetal development. Similarly, there is a lack of systematic follow-up on pulmonary vascular and pulmonary development in neonates and young children post-birth. A longitudinal systematic tracking of MGI changes both prenatally and postnatally would contribute to a more scientific assessment of pulmonary blood vessel development in fetuses, newborns, and young children under varying pulmonary blood flow conditions. This approach is crucial for analyzing fetal conditions, predicting prognosis, and informing prenatal consultations and postnatal treatments.