Whether the in vitro fertilization (IVF) has an effect on the cardiac function of the fetus is very important to evaluate the safety of the technique. The aim of this paper is to establish normal reference range for the fetal right myocardial performance index (RMPI), and compare the reference range between IVF fetuses and spontaneous pregnancy (SP) fetuses by automatic measurement of the RMPI. Three hundred seventy-one spontaneous singleton pregnancies (the control group) and 39 singleton pregnancies conceived by IVF (the experimental group) were enrolled into the current study. An automatic measurement system was used to acquire the RMPI. The cardiac function of the two groups was compared by t-test. There was no significant difference in normal reference range of RMPI between IVF fetuses and SP fetuses (RMPI 0.42 ± 0.05 vs 0.43 ± 0.05). No strong correlation was also noted between RMPI with gestational age and heart rate. Normal reference ranges of RMPI of IVF fetuses and SP fetuses were established, and no significant difference between IVF fetuses and SP fetuses in RMPI was found. Thus, these findings may suggest that IVF has little impact on cardiac function of the fetus.

中文翻译：

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体外受精胎儿与自然妊娠胎儿右侧心肌功能指标评价的横断面研究

体外受精（IVF）是否对胎儿的心脏功能有影响对于评价该技术的安全性非常重要。本文的目的是建立胎儿右侧心肌性能指数（RMPI）的正常参考范围，并通过RMPI的自动测量来比较IVF胎儿与自然妊娠（SP）胎儿的参考范围。371 例自然单胎妊娠（对照组）和 39 例通过 IVF 受孕的单胎妊娠（实验组）被纳入本研究。使用自动测量系统来获取 RMPI。两组心功能比较采用t检验。IVF胎儿与SP胎儿的RMPI正常参考范围无显着差异（RMPI 0.42±0.05 vs 0.43±0.05）。在 RMPI 与胎龄和心率之间也没有发现强相关性。建立了IVF胎儿和SP胎儿RMPI的正常参考范围，未发现IVF胎儿和SP胎儿RMPI之间存在显着差异。因此，这些发现可能表明 IVF 对胎儿的心脏功能几乎没有影响。