Echocardiographic measurements of cardiac dimensions correlate better with body length than with body weight or body surface area.

Looking after children means caring for very small infants up to adult-sized adolescents, with weights ranging from 500 g to more than 100 kg and heights ranging from 25 to more than 200 cm. The available echocardiographic reference data were drawn from a small sample, which did not include preterm infants. Most authors have used body weight or body surface area to predict left ventricular dimensions. The current authors had the impression that body length would be a better surrogate parameter than body weight or body surface area. They analyzed their echocardiographic database retrospectively. The analysis included all available echocardiographic data from 6 June 2001 to 15 December 2011 from their echocardiographic database. The authors included 12,086 of 26,325 subjects documented as patients with normal hearts in their analysis by the examining the pediatric cardiologist. For their analysis, they selected body weight, length, age, and aortic and pulmonary valve diameter in two-dimensional echocardiography and left ventricular dimension in M-mode. They found good correlation between echocardiographic dimensions and body surface area, body weight, and body length. The analysis showed a complex relationship between echocardiographic measurements and body weight and body surface area, whereas body length showed a linear relationship. This makes prediction of echo parameters more reliable. According to this retrospective analysis, body length is a better parameter for evaluating echocardiographic measurements than body weight or body surface area and should therefore be used in daily practice.