VYF Leung, WCW Chu, C Metreweli

Abstract

Objective: To compare gender difference on renal pelvic size and urinary bladder volume (BV) in normal male and female fetuses at 37 weeks of gestational age (GA) using ultrasound. Methods: 414 normal singleton pregnancies of 37 weeks GA were included. In each fetus, antero-posterior (AP) diameter of the renal pelvis and BV was measured. Results: Male fetuses were found to have greater AP diameter of renal pelvis than female (male: 2.69?.93 mm and female: 2.46±0.87 mm) (p<0.05, independent sample t-test). Female fetuses were found to have a greater BV than male (male: 13.93±8.43 cm³ and female: 17.22±10.22 cm³) (p<0.05, independent sample T test). Conclusions: Gender difference in morphology indicates that the respective urinary tract development is different between male and female fetuses, which probably accounts for gender difference in the urinary tract anomalies detected during neonatal period.

目的：超聲檢查比較孕37 周正常男性和女性胎兒腎盂大小和膀胱容積（BV）之間的性別差異。方法：對414名孕37周單胎妊娠的婦女進行超聲檢查，測定每一個胎兒的腎盂前後徑和膀胱容積。結果：男性胎兒的腎盂前後徑較女性胎兒長（男性：2.69±0.93 mm，女性：2.46±0.87 mm）（非獨立樣本t檢驗，p<0.05）。女性胎兒的膀胱容積大於男性胎兒（男性：13.93±0.43 cm³，女性：17.22±0.22 cm³）（非獨立樣本t檢驗，p<0.05）。結論：泌尿道形態學的性別差異表明男性和女性胎兒泌尿道的發育是各不相同的，由此可能解釋了新生兒期檢出泌尿道異常存在性別差異的原因。