RATIOS BETWEEN THE ABDOMINAL CIRCUMFERENCE, HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE, OR FEMUR LENGTH AND THE TRANSVERSE CEREBELLAR DIAMETER OF THE GROWTH-RETARDED AND MACROSOMIC FETUS
Lm. Hill et al., RATIOS BETWEEN THE ABDOMINAL CIRCUMFERENCE, HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE, OR FEMUR LENGTH AND THE TRANSVERSE CEREBELLAR DIAMETER OF THE GROWTH-RETARDED AND MACROSOMIC FETUS, American journal of perinatology, 11(2), 1994, pp. 144-148
The purpose of our investigation was twofold: to provide normative dat
a for the ratios between head circumference and cerebellum, abdominal
circumference and cerebellum, and femur length and cerebellum; and to
evaluate the predictive accuracy of an abnormal ratio in the detection
of growth retardation and macrosomia. Data on 675 women with normal g
estations between 14 and 42 weeks were used to estimate reference curv
es for the three ratios to be evaluated. We then compared the ratios o
f 34 fetuses with intrauterine growth retardation and 28 macrosomic fe
tuses to the control group. Of the three ratios that we investigated,
abdominal circumference to transverse cerebellar diameter was the most
efficacious. However, the sensitivity of this ratio for the detection
of intrauterine growth retardation and macrosomia was only 52.9% and
46.6%, respectively. A ratio between head circumference, abdominal cir
cumference, or femur length and the transverse cerebellar diameter can
not reliably distinguish between normally growing fetuses and those th
at are growth retarded or macrosomic.