Prenatal prediction of respiratory distress syndrome by multimodality approach using 3D lung ultrasound, lung-to-liver intensity ratio tissue histogram and pulmonary artery Doppler assessment of fetal lung maturity.

Objective: Studying the correlation of different lung parameters, using three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) with fetal lung maturity (FLM) to predict the development of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).

Methods: Three-dimensional ultrasound was done to record the fetal lung volume (FLV), fetal lung-to-liver intensity ratio (FLLIR) and the main pulmonary artery (MPA) blood flow parameters; pulsatility index (PI), resistive index (RI) and acceleration time-to-ejection time ratio (At/Et), to 218 women between 32 and 40 weeks gestational age within 24 h from labor.

Results: Of 218 fetuses examined, final analysis was done for 143 fetuses.