Background: Many of the problems with childhood and adolescence are related to birth weight, which varies depending on the birth weight of the newborn. One of the most important factors affecting birth weight can be attributed to the adequacy of the placenta and the environment in the uterus. The placental thickness is one of the characteristics of the placenta, which indicates the adequacy of the villous tree arrangement in placenta and the available blood volume of the fetus; therefore, we decided to study the correlation between the placental thickness and the fetal weight in the second and third trimester of pregnancy to introduce an auxiliary, simple, inexpensive, and available method for assessing the weight of the fetus.

Method: Cross-sectional study was randomly selected on 214 pregnant women aged 15-45 years who were referred to the Zanjan University of Medical Sciences clinic in Zanjan during the second and third trimester of pregnancy from April 2017 to September 2017, performed. All pregnant women received written consent for participation in the program. Exclusion criteria included any systemic diseases or genetic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Using Philips affinity 50G ultrasound device, the mean age of fetus and fetal weight was measured by measuring the biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), femoral length (FL) and abdominal circumference (AC), and placental thickness was measured in attachment point the umbilical cord; then, the data were analyzed by multiple regression analysis.

Results: According to the analysis of statistical data, a significant correlation was found between the placental thickness in the second and third trimester of pregnancy with fetal weight at these times (r=0.539,p=0.005  ;r=0.541,p=0.005), per 100 g of fetus  gain in the second and 250 g in third trimester of pregnancy, the placental thickness increased of 1 millimeter in the second and 0.4 mm in the third trimester of pregnancy; Also, there was a significant correlation between the placental thickness in the second and third trimester of pregnancy with the fetal age at these times (r=0.602,p=0.005 ;r=0.536,p=0.005), for each 1 week increase in the age of the fetus in the second and third trimester of pregnancy, the thickness of placenta increase 0.89 mm in the second trimester and 0.81 mm in the third trimester of pregnancy; however, no significant correlation was found between the placental thickness and the fetal gender.

Conclusion: According to the results of the study, a higher sample size study is recommended to determine a nomogram to use the placental thickness as an auxiliary tool along with other methods to determine the gestational age and fetal weight in ultrasonography and the related software is designed and use in ultrasound devices.

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Borji Soheila, MD

Assistant Professor of Radiology Department, Zanjan University of Medical Science ,

Zanjan, Iran, Mousavi Hospital, Gavazang road, Zanjan,

Tel:+982433130001, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.