Quantitative assessment of prenatal aorticwall thickness in gestational diabetes

Intrauterine environment, and especially a mismatch between the early and later-life environments, is thought to induce epigenetic and morphological changes that may manifest in later life as an increased vulnerability to non communicable diseases as diabetes. Prenatal events, such as intrauterine growth restriction, as well as an increased risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular alterations, have been shown to be associated with an increased intima-media thickness (aIMT) of the abdominal aorta in the fetus. To date its measure, has been performed manually on ultrasound fetal images by skilled practitioners.We present an automatic algorithm that identifies abdominal aorta and estimates its diameter and thickness from routine third trimester ultrasonographic fetal data, providing a correlation between end-diastole aIMT automatic and manual measures of 0.96, with a mean error of 0.02 mm, and a relative error of 3%. Moreover, we show preliminary results on the application of the algorithm, proving a significant difference aIMT values between fetuses with normal weight and those with normal weight but gestational diabetic mother.