title: Nomograms for mitral inflow Doppler and tissue Doppler velocities in Caucasian children.
abstract: Pediatric echocardiographic nomograms for systolic/diastolic functional indices are limited by small sample size and inconsistent methodologies. Our aim was to establish pediatric nomograms for mitral valve (MV) pulsed wave Doppler (PWD) and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) velocities.
  
  
  
  We performed PWD/TDI measurements of MV velocities and generated models testing for linear/logarithmic/exponential/square root relationships. Heteroscedasticity was accounted for by White test or Breusch-Pagan test. Age, weight, height, heart rate (HR), and body surface area (BSA) were used as independent variables in different analyses to predict the mean values of each measurement.
  
  
  
  In all, 904 Caucasian Italian healthy children (age 0 days-17 years; 45.5% females; BSA 0.12-2.12m(2)) were prospectively studied. No individual variable provided equations with an acceptable coefficient of determination (R(2)) and even the inclusion of multiple variables in the model resulted in only a partial amelioration of the R(2). Higher R(2) were obtained for PWD-E deceleration time (0.53), septal (Se') and lateral (Le') MV-TDI e' velocity (Se': 0.54; Le': 0.55). Variability was higher at lower age and BSA. In older children patterns were more reproducible; however, the exclusion of neonates did not substantially improve the final models. The low R(2) hampered building of z-scores and calculation of estimated percentiles. Thus normative data have been presented as observed percentile according to age for all measurements.
  
  
  
  We report normal ranges for PWD and TDI mitral velocities derived from a large population of Caucasian children. Variability of diastolic patterns especially at lower ages needs to be taken into account.
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cantinotti
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: raf_jordan@inwind.it.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scalese
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Murzi
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Assanta
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Spadoni
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crocetti
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marotta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molinaro
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska Medical Center/Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Shelby
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kutty
authors.affiliation: Tuscany Foundation "G. Monasterio", Massa and Pisa, Italy; Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iervasi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018619:Echocardiography, Doppler, Pulsed; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D049451:Nomograms; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D044465:White People
keywords: Children; Echocardiography; Nomograms