Second‐trimester measurements of placental volume by three‐dimensional ultrasound to predict small‐for‐gestational‐age infants

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Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the value of second‐trimester three‐dimensional sonographic placental volume measurements to predict infants who are below the 10th Gentile for birth weight.Subjects and methods Placental volume measurements were performed using three‐dimensional ultrasound in 382 women with normal singleton pregnancies at 16–23 weeks' gestation. Logistic multivariate regression consisting of variables considered to influence birth weight was used to predict infants with a birth weight below the 10th centile from the placental volume measurements.Results: Prognostic influence could be shown for placental volume (p ≤ 0.0001), gestational week at the time of measurement (p = 0.0002) and maternal weight at the time of registration (p = 0.0025). Values for specificity and sensitivity achieved by choosing an ‘optimal’ cut‐off point of 0.16 for the estimation probability for a small‐for‐gestational‐age (SGA) infant were low at 82.5% and 52.5%, respectively.Conclusions: Three‐dimensional sonograpbic measurement of the placental volume alone is not a satisfactory technique for predicting SGA infants. Copyright © 1998 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology

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