Abstract

The prenatal assessment is essential during pregnancy for the determination of growth and development of fetus. Ultrasonography has been an accessible screening procedure to monitor prenatal growth using fetal parameters and gestational age. Femur length (FL) and biparietal diameter (BPD) are commonly used in the second trimester to assess the growth of the fetus and to determine an accurate gestational age (GA). As per studies, variations were noted in the reliability of FL and BPD in estimating the GA and fetal growth using ultrasonography. Hence, the present study was conducted to understand the growth patterns of both femur length and biparietal diameter from second trimester using ultrasonography and also to compare their relative accuracy in assessing the fetal growth. The study involved local antenatal mothers with no medical and obstetric complications and the ultrasonography was performed using ESAOTE-MY LAB 60 Machine equipped with 3.5 MHZ curvilinear transducer. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the collected data. Mean and standard deviations for the two parameters were estimated from the derived measurements and the linear regression analysis was performed to understand the accuracy of FL and BPD in estimating GA from second trimester. The results had revealed the mean and standard deviation of femur length and biparietal diameter as 51.39 ±19.17 and 66.66 ±20.91 respectively with a strong correlation coefficient of 0.986 and significant P values (<0.001). Based on these findings, we may affirm that the fetal femur length could be a reliable parameter in assessing fetal growth than BPD regardless of growth rate in the last week of 3rd trimester. Therefore, fetal femur length would be a preferable parameter to assess fetal growth which not only enables the detection of fetal maturity but also aid to minimize preterm deliveries.

Description