Sonographic Measurements of Inferior Vena Cava, Aorta, and IVC/Aorta Ratio in Healthy Children

Background: Assessment of intravascular volume status is important in pediatric patients admitted to the emergency departments and pediatric intensive care units. Inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter and collapsibility index are used to evaluate the intravascular volume status in adults. The normal range of IVC diameter is available for adults and the normal range considered for adults is between 1.7 to 2.1 cm, but such normative data is limited for children of all ages. Aims: Our aim in this study was to obtain the IVC and the aorta diameter reference values and the mean vena cava collapsibility index in healthy and normovolemic children. Subjects and Methods: Vena cava inferior and aorta images in B mode were obtained. IVC diameter in the inspiratory and the largest IVC diameter in the expiratory were recorded, and the vena cava collapsibility index was calculated. Results: Ultrasonographic measurements were performed in total on 1938 children. A significant positive correlation was found between IVC and aorta diameters with age. The collapsibility index was found as 37.2% (SD 11.8) in the overall study population. In addition, the reference values for the IVC and aorta diameters obtained from the measurements were also acquired. Conclusions: We believe that our IVC and aorta diameter measurements obtained from a large number of participants may be used as reference values in emergency departments and intensive care units.