Assessment of fetal age using sonographic fetal limb bones measurement

Abstract

This is aprospective, analytic, and descriptive study which is conducted in Aljazeera state, Sudan. The aims of this study to measure fetal radius, ulna, fibula, tibia of normal singlton pregnant sudanese ladies by ultrasound and related them to gestational age at 14-38 weeks. In this study we collected data from 140 normal singlton pregnant ladies (each twenty pregnant women at 14, 18, 22 , 26, 30, 34, 38 weeks of gestational age) who were came to Oma-algora specialize hospital during the period from July 2016 to February 2017. Fetal gestational age was calculated by using BPD, HC, AC, FL measurements in weeks. The fetal radius, ulna, fibula and tibia length were measured by cm. We used Statistic package for social sciences (SPSS) to analyze the data collected and presented them on tables and graphs. The study shows that the growth of the fetal radius, ulna, fibula and tibia was linear from 14 through 38 weeks’ gestation, but the various bones appeared to grow at different rates . It also revealed that growth pattern of long bone length, early fetal development is characterized by accelerated growth of these bones from 14 to 30 weeks followed by a decrease in weekly increment rate. Furthermore the growth of the radius and ulna accelerated compared with the fibula and tibia. It also showed that there was strong correlation between gestational age in weeks and RL, UL, FiL and TL in cm (r=0.997), (r=0.984), (r=0.981) and (r=0.990) respectively. The paired sample T-test the correlation was found statistically significant (P=0.000) between GA/weeks and measurements of RL, UL, FiL, and TL/cm. Therefore fetal radius, ulna, fibula, and tibia length can be used in the assessing of gestational age and in monitoring fetal growth.