Ultrasonographical age estimation from fetal biparietal diameter.

ABSTRACT

In a wide variety of circumstances of feticide, fetal age determination is important for identification. This is an important identification feature in postmortem cases. There are many different parameters to determine the age from fetus. But actual problem arises, when the body of fetus is either mutilated or decomposed. The data of femur length and other variables at various gestational ages can be used for age estimation of fetus at autopsy. But at time of autopsy each bone may or may not be present for autopsy. So, this study of ultrasonic fetal biparietal diameter was done to collect data, which can be utilized to ascertain the age of fetus in autopsy cases particularly in the Punjab region. This regional data can also be used to determine gestation age, if exact last menstrual period date is not known in antenatal cases of this region or to develop charts for ultrasound dating of pregnancy based on biparietal diameter and, second, to derive reference curves for normal fetal growth based on bi-parietal diameter.