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Prediction of fetal macrosomia using sonographically measured abdominal subcutaneous tissue thickness

✍ Scribed by Petrikovsky, Boris M.; Oleschuk, Catherine; Lesser, Martin; Gelertner, Natalie; Gross, Beth


Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
1997
Tongue
English
Weight
93 KB
Volume
25
Category
Article
ISSN
0091-2751

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✦ Synopsis


Purpose:

We assessed the usefulness of sonographic measurement of abdominal subcutaneous tissue thickness in predicting fetal macrosomia (weight > 4,000 g).

Methods:

Abdominal subcutaneous tissue thickness was measured sonographically in 133 term fetuses. all studied fetuses were delivered within 72 hours after the measurements were taken.

Results:

One hundred thirteen fetuses were normal size, and 20 were macrosomic. the fetal abdominal subcutaneous tissue thickness ranged between 3 and 18 mm in all fetuses, with a mean measurement of 8.4 +/- 2.7 mm (standard deviation). the mean tissue thickness differed significantly between normal and macrosomic fetuses (7.0 mm versus 12.4 mm, respectively; p < 0.0001). there was a significant positive correlation between the abdominal subcutaneous tissue thickness and the birth weight (r = 0.67, p < 0.0001). the negative predictive value for a range of cut-off points between 8 and 13 mm varied between 84.3% and 100% (for prevalence rates of macrosomia of 5-25%). however, the positive predictive value was less than 50% for cut-off values below 11 mm.

Conclusions:

Sonographic measurement of the subcutaneous tissue thickness of the fetal abdomen is useful for ruling out macrosomia.