Placental Thickness- A Sonographic Evaluation of Gestational Age

ABSTRACT

Background: Ultrasound is being used in obstetrics for assessment of fetal well-being and for accurate assessment of gestational age. The various parameters used in ultrasonography are biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and femur length (FL), crown-rump length (CRL) etc. The present study is conducted to assess the relationship of placental thickness with gestational age.Methods: A total of 100 normal pregnant cases were subjected to ultrasonographic examination and gestational age was calculated by measuring biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and femur length (FL) by ultrasonography. Placental thickness was measured at the level of cord insertion with 3 Mhz sector probe. Symphysio-fundal height was also measured and gestational age was calculated by comparing with the standard chart. Results: A high degree of correlation is found between the gestational age and the fundal height (r=0.991, p< 0.001), bi-parietal diameter(r=0.964, p< 0.001), head circumference (r=0.979, p<0.001), femur length (r=0.99, p< 0.001), abdominal circumference (r=0.975, p<0.001). Conclusion: In this work placental thickness was taken as a new parameter for predicting gestational age and a good correlation between them was marked (r=0.993, p<0.001).