[Early diagnosis of intra-uterine growth restriction by ultrasonographic estimation of fetal weight]

Abstract

Objective: Aiming to reduce the perinatal and late morbidity and lethality through opportune prenatal intervention, this study proposed to sequentially evaluate the echographic fetal weight at the 25th and 27th weeks of gestation, establishing cut-off values for echographic fetal weight useful in the diagnosis of small-for-gestational-age at this gestation time, and developing a mathematical model able to recognize the probability of a newborn small-for- gestational-age.

Methods: Eighty-five newborns were evaluated, 35 small and 50 adequate for gestational age. The mothers who underwent prenatal care at our Institution were healthy or presented chronic arterial hypertension as the only disease, no history of addictions, gemellarity or malformed fetuses. All mothers performed ultrasonographic exams at the 25th and 27th weeks for estimation of the fetal weight.

Results: The exams were able to detect the inadequate development of those fetuses small-for-gestational-age group. The cut-off values for echographic fetal weight were established as 775 grams and 1015 grams for the 25th and 27th weeks, respectively. A mathematical model was developed, capable of quantifying the probability of newborns exhibiting insufficient intra-uterine growth, being small-for-gestational-age.