A Study of Relationship between Placental Thickness and Fetal Age In 3rd trimester in Sudanese Women

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the placental thickness, measured at the insertion of the umbilical cord, as a parameter for estimating gestational age of the fetus.The study was conducted on 100 women with normal singleton pregnancies in the third trimester at Khartoum University Hospital from 1/9/2018 to 1/12 /2018. Ultrasonogaphy was done using ” mindray – digiprince DP-6600 with 3.75 MHz convex probe . After estimating the fetal age ( in weeks) by using biparital diameter (BPD) and Femur length (FL) .The placental thickness was calculated ( in millimeter) during third trimester. The study showed that the placental thickness in millimeters in all patients along with the third trimester has positive linear correlation with gestational age in weeks. The researcher concluded that the measurement of the placental thickness is an important parameter for estimating gestational age in the third trimester in normal singleton pregnancies along with other parameter like BPD, FL, AC, HC where the exact duration of pregnancy is not known. The study was recommended that Placental thickness should be used in to estimate fetal age in the third Trimester of pregnancy. Also Equipment companies should install placental thickness as an indicator for gestational age in their machines