Accuracy of estimation of gestational age from 18-38 weeks by mean fetal renal length

Abstract

Background- Gestational age (GA) plays a pivotal role in efficient obstetric care and practice. Accurate assessment of gestational age is of utmost importance and the mainstay for management of pregnancies. Various ultrasonographic biometric parameters like crown- rump length(CRL) and head circumference(HC), biparietal diameter (BPD), femur length (FL), and abdominal circumference (AC) are used to calculate GA .As the reliability of these parameters decline with advancing gestational age, there continues a search for other parameters in determining GA. Various studies have shown the application of fetal renal length as a parameter in estimating GA with great accuracy when the women presents in late 2nd or 3rd trimester without a dating scan. This study has hence been taken up to evaluate the accuracy of mean fetal renal length measurement in establishing the GA over the conventional biometric parameters that are used.