Cerebral ventricular volume assessment by three-dimensional ultrasonography.

We assessed ventricular volume with three-dimensional ultrasonography. The study group consisted of 54 infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Gestational age was 32.9+/-3.5 weeks and birth weight was 1774+/-623 g. To obtain images, the transducer was placed on the anterior fontanel. Sagittal sections were serially and automatically scanned from left to right. The angle of scanning was 60 degrees and five seconds were spent on e scanning. Two hundred fifty B-mode images were stored in the built-in computer for later retrieval. We chose the parasagittal sections from the midline to the lateral portion and traced manually an area of the lateral ventricle in each section at intervals of 1 mm. The built-in computer integrated them and measured the ventricular volume. The lateral ventricular size became larger during the first two weeks after birth. The left ventricle was larger than the right one. There was no correlation between lateral ventricular volume and birth weight. Our study shows the normal value of the lateral ventricular volume in neonates.