Investigation of fetal nasal bone, nuchal fold, kidney, liver, bowel, placenta and maternal uterine myometrium with B-mode histogram and shear wave elastography on euploid and aneuploid pregnancies in the second trimester

B-mode ultrasonography is utilized in fetal screening of chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome. Presence of soft markers such as hyperechogenic bowel, renal pelviectasis, hypoplastic nasal bone and increased nuchal fold are searched in B-mode screening. B-mode histogram, evaluates mean and standart deviation of white and black color codes of interested region on B-mode ultrasonography. The aim of this study was to assess fetal nasal bone, nuchal fold, kidney, liver, bowel, placenta and maternal uterine myometrium with B-mode histogram and shear wave elastography on euploid and aneuploid pregnancies. The participants of this research were singleton pregnancies between 19-23 weeks of gestation with euploid (n=35) and aneuploid (n=14) fetuses. B-mode ultrasound and shear wave elastography images of fetal nasal bone, nuchal fold, kidney, liver, bowel, placenta and maternal uterine myometrium were obtained. The images were analyzed with a novel software calibrated and written by the researcher by histogram analysis and shear wave speed calculation. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS Program. Normally distributed data were analyzed with Student's t-test and non-parametric data were analyzed with Mann Whitney-U test. The mean and standard deviation of shear wave speed of fetal nasal bone was significantly lower in aneploid fetuses. There was no difference between the other tissues' values of B-mode histogram and shear wave velocity among two groups. Nasal bone's mean shear wave speed and standard deviation were significantly lower in aneuploid fetuses. In conclusion, fetal nasal bone of aneuploid fetuses was more elastic euploid fetuses.