Fetal foot length for assessment of gestational age: A comprehensive study in north India
Appropriate assessment of gestational age is paramount in obstetric care. Making appropriate management decisions requires accurate appraisal of gestational age. Accurate pregnancy dating may assist obstetricians in appropriately counseling women who are at risk of a preterm delivery about likely neonatal outcomes and is also essential in the evaluation of fetal growth and the detection of intrauterine growth restriction. The purpose of this study is to find out the other parameters such as foot length which can be used to determine the gestational age either more accurately or can be used in other conditions where the previous parameters are unreliable and can also be used as an adjunct in the diagnosis of many karyotypic defects and syndromes. This study is a part of Ph. D thesis of first author under supervision of the second author. Ultrasonographic measurement of Foot Length of 100 pregnant women was done in the Radio diagnosis Department. Sonographically we measured foot length from 15 to 36 weeks of gestation. In our study the earliest age at which fetal foot length could be seen sonographically was found to be 15 weeks of gestation and mean foot length is 17.5+ 1.29 and mean sonographic foot length at 36 weeks of gestation is 64.4+ 3.28.From regression analysis a strongly significant relationship has been observed between fetal foot length and gestational age.