ABSTRACT
Background: The aim was to study neonatal foot length as a simple method for quick gestational age assessment which can be done by basic healthcare personnel overcoming the technicality required by other assessment methods.Methods: Prospective descriptive study was done. Live born neonates at Saveetha Medical College, Kanchipuram from June 2016 to June2017 were enrolled. Gestational age was assessed by New Ballard's Scoring and footlength was measured using the paddle blades of automated digital Vernier calipers within 24 hours while birth weight was taken within 72 hours of birth. Based on gestational age, babies were grouped into preterm, term and post term and were subclassified as small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age (AGA) and large for gestational age (LGA) based on Lubchenco's intrauterine growth chart. Correlation and regression analysis and Scattergram was done.Results: Out of 300 neonates, term, preterm and post-term were 70.3%,28.3% and1.3% while SGA, AGA, and LGA babies were 9%, 88% and 3%. Mean foot length was 7.728cm'0.59 with a range of 5-8.8cm. Foot length strongly correlated with gestational age in Preterm AGA, SGA and Term AGA babies (<0.001). Correlation coefficient of foot length with gestational age was higher in preterms (r=0.95). Gestational age in 54% of study population could be calculated with the derived regression equation derived.Conclusions: Foot length maybe useful for quick estimation of gestational age in preterm and term neonates for early referral of newborns requiring special care and can even be done by basic healthcare personnel.
ABSTRACT
Background: India is one of the countries with the highest neonatal mortality, for which preterm birth is considered as major cause (43.7%). Therefore, early identification by a simple screening tool is important for prognostication and follow-up of new-born infants, especially preterm.Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 live newborns at Saveetha Hospital in Kanchipuram. Anthropometric measures such as birth weight, crown-heel length, head circumference, foot length were taken within 3 days of life and gestational age assessment was done by new Ballard scoring after calculation by Naegles formula. Neonates were grouped into preterm, term and post-term and also small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age (AGA) and large for gestational age (LGA). Minimum to maximum range of variables in each gestational range was calculated. The sensitivity and specificity of each variable was found using receiver operating curve. Parameter having the highest sensitivity and good specificity was considered as potential screening tool to identify high risk babies. SPSS Software version 17 for windows was used.Results: The range of gestational age, length, foot length, birth weight and head circumference was 28-42 weeks, 35-53 cm, 5-8.8 cm, 0.8-4.7 kg and 22.8-54.3 cm respectively. Among all, maximum sensitivity at 37weeks gestational age was seen with foot length (80.57%) at a cut-off of 7.58 cm. A nomogram of foot length for each gestational age group (range of 2 weeks) was also derived.Conclusions: It can be concluded that foot length has the potential to be considered as a screening tool to identify preterm neonates especially at a concentrated community level and is particularly useful in resource constraint countries.