title: Association of cardiac development with assisted reproductive technology in childhood: a prospective single-blind pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the pattern and extent of cardiovascular developmental alterations among children conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART) and its association with potential confounders.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study was a prospective single-blind pilot design lasting 15 months. The ART group was recruited by a non-random, consecutive sample on the basis of the unique personal identification number assigned to ART children, whereas spontaneous conception controls were recruited by a population-based random sample from the same hospital by age. Echocardiography was available for the measurement of 128 ART children and 100 controls with respect to cardiovascular geometric morphology and cardiac function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of cardiac geometric morphology parameters were comparable among the study groups (P>0.05), except for significant increases in left ventricular (LV) relative wall thickness (P=0.038), LV mass index (P=0.005) and LV remodeling index (P=0.005) in ART children after adjustment for age, gender, body surface area and heart rate. The results showed similarity in LV systolic function characterized by ejection fraction (P=0.140) and shortening fraction (P=0.167) between the groups. However, ART children had a significant tendency toward a decrease in mitral A (P=0.008) and mitral E' (P=0.012) compared with controls after adjusting for confounders. Additionally, Cox analysis suggested an independent association (P<0.05) of anthropometrics and perinatal outcomes in addition to the ART procedure itself with the differences in cardiac developmental status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings support the presence of remodeling in the left cardiac geometric morphology and diastolic dysfunction and the absence of any change to the aortocoronary morphometry or systolic function in ART children compared with controls, which may be independently associated with the anthropometrics and perinatal outcomes in addition to the ART procedure.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Echocardiography, Clinical Center of Reproductive Medicine; First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hai-tao
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Yu-gui
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Nan-nan
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jia-yin
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000254:growth & development*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; D016037:Single-Blind Method