الفهرس 
The Significance and Importance of Gestational Age EstimationOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 112 |  |  |
| | | from | 112 | | |
Abstract
Background: Gestational age assessment from bi-parietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and femur length (FL),though most commonly used might be inaccurate in late pregnancy, especially when a pregnant woman can’t recall her last menstrual period. They also varies with underlying medical conditions and shows potential discrepancies especially in late trimesters. Fetal kidney length is characterized by a constant growth as 1.7 mm fortnightly throughout pregnancy and isn’t changed with growth problems.
Objectives: To assess the accuracy of MFKL measurement in calculating the gestational age in the third trimester.
Patients and Methods: The study included a number of 112 pregnant women with singleton pregnancy between 28-40 weeks who are sure of the dates of their first day of last menstrual period with no associated risk factors, they were subjected to routine ultrasonography including measuring of various biometric parameters as fetal head circumference, femur length, abdominal circumference, biparietal diameter along with mean fetal kidney length. A separate gestational age will be calculated from multiple biometric indices BPD, HC, AC and FL using normogram by Hadlock et al. Gestational age will be calculated from MFKL using normograms by Cohen et al.. These values will be compared with actual GA derived from actual dates.
Results: According to the current study, fetal kidney length and the other biometric indices showed strong positive correlation (P <0.001) with the clinical gestational age in the third trimester but best correlation was found to be with FKL with a correlation coefficient of 0.994 when compared with other parameters like BPD (r=0.981), HC (r=0.981), AC(r=0.987), FL (r=0.993).
Conclusion: Kidney length can be used as an individual parameter in estimating gestational age, especially in later trimesters.