Abstract
Introduction: An accurate determination of gestational age is must for Obstetricians and Gynecologists to make appropriate decisions, for identifying and counseling of women who are at risk of a preterm delivery. It is also essential to evaluate fetal growth and the detection of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). In our present study, we worked on fetal humerus length and found that in normal growing fetus, fetal it increase with advancing gestational age and regression analysis showed a strongly significant relationship between gestational age and fetal humerus length. The purpose of this study is to find out the other parameters such as foot length and tibial length which can be used to determine the gestational age or can be used in other conditions where the previous parameters are unreliable and can also be used as supplement in the diagnosis of many genetic defects.
Methods: 100 pregnant women underwent ultrasonographic measurements of humerus Length from 13 to 40 weeks of gestation during routine ANC, in the Radio diagnosis Department.
Results: In our study, we found the earliest age at which humerus length could be seen by ultrasound was 13 weeks of gestation and mean humerus length 13.12± 0.50, while at 40 weeks of gestation 69.00±00 respectively. A strongly significant relationship has been observed between fetal humerus length and gestational age by regression analysis.
Conclusion: Humerus length can be considered as one of the good parameter for the determination of gestational age.
Keywords: Fetal humerus length.
References
- Kalish RB, Chervenak FA. Sonographic determination of gestational age. Ultrasound Rev Obstet Gynecol 2005; 5:254–8.
- Hughes R, Aitken E, Anderson J, Barry C, Benton M, Elliot J; National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Antenatal care. Routine care for the healthy pregnant woman. NICE clinical guideline 62. London: RCOG Press; 2008.
- Bottomley C, Bourne T. Dating and growth in the first trimester. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 2009; 23:439–52.
- Gardosi J. Dating of pregnancy: time to forget the last menstrual period. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 1997; 9:367–8.
- Gardosi J, Geirsson RT. Routine ultrasound is the method of choice for dating pregnancy. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1998; 105:933–6.
- Salomon LJ, Alfirevic Z, Bilardo CM, Chalouhi GE, Ghi T, Kagan KO, et al. ISUOG practice guidelines: performance of first-trimester fetal ultrasound scan. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2013; 41(1):102–13.
- Andersen HF, Johnson TR Jr, Flora JD Jr, Barclay ML. Gestational age assessment. II. Prediction from combined clinical observations. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1981; 140(1):770–4.
- Andersen HF, Johnson TR Jr., Barclay ML, Flora JD Jr. Gestational age assessment. I. analysis of individual clinical observations. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1981;139:173–7
- Nguyen TH, Larsen T, Engholm G, Moller H. Evaluation of ultrasound estimated date of delivery in 17,450 spontaneous singleton births: do we need to modify Naegele’s rule? Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 1999; 14:23–8.
- Queenan JT, O'Brien GD, Campbell S. Ultrasound measurement of fetal limb bones. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1980;138:297-302.
- Kimberly Butt, MD et al, Determination of Gestational Age by Ultrasound, SOGC clinical practice guidelines, 303, February 2014: 171-181.S
- Juos Kurmanavicius, Eileen M. Wright, Patrick Royston, Roland Zimmermann, Renate Huch, Albert Huch, Joseph Wisser.
- Taner ZÜYLAN, Khalil Awadh MURSHID. An Assessment of Femur Growth Parameters in Human Fetuses and Their Relationship to Gestational Age. Turk J Med Sci 2003;33:27-32.
- Exacoustos, P. Rosati, G.Rizzo and D.A rduini. Ultrasound measurements of fetal limb bones. Ultrasound Obstet. Gynecol 1991; 1:325-330.
- Lyn S. Chitty, Douglas G. Altman. Charts of fetal size: limb bones.BJOG:an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2002;109:919-929.
Corresponding Author
Dr Vishnu Datt Pandey
Mob- 8449480929, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i12.27
