This study was done to see how well these customised GROW charts might diagnose aberrant foetal growth patterns in prenatal patients visiting a tertiary care perinatal hospital in south India.

From 24 weeks of gestation, serial SFH of expectant mothers with singleton babies scheduled for prenatal care up to 22 weeks was measured and plotted on unique growth charts created with the gestation related optimum weight (GROW) programme. Fetal development patterns were identified during the prenatal stage using ultrasonography, and were then confirmed after delivery using a neonatal growth categorization. The diagnostic potency of SFH was evaluated against ultrasonography and neonatal classifications using sensitivity, specificity, area under the ROC curve, and likelihood ratio tests.

666 pregnant women who attended prenatal clinics between January 2010 and October 2010 were included in the research. On ultrasonography, 564 (84.6%) foetuses were AGA, 78 (11.7%) foetuses were LGA, 19 (2.9%) foetuses were SGA, and 5 (0.8%) exhibited centile crossover from higher to lower pattern. Serial SFH measurements revealed that 426 (64.0%) of the foetuses had normal development, 180 (27.0%) had excessive growth, and 40 (6.0%) had sluggish growth. Serial SFH measurements exhibited positive likelihood ratios of 4.7 (8.5 for USG) and 0.06 for the detection of SGA and LGA, respectively.

A low-cost screening method for detecting foetuses with aberrant growth patterns may be developed using the SFH data displayed on a personalised GROW curve. The diagnostic effectiveness of SFH plotted on customised growth charts has to be further enhanced before being employed on a bigger scale by creating suitable customised growth charts for India.

Author(s) Details:

Badanahatti Radhika,
Department of Fetal Medicine, Fernandez Hospital, Bogulkunta, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Vavilala Suseela,
Department of Fetal Medicine, Fernandez Hospital, Bogulkunta, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Praveen Kumar Nirmalan,
Clinical Research Unit, Fernandez Hospital, Bogulkunta, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/CPMS-V4/article/view/7371

Keywords: Fetal growth, growth curves, SGA, LGA, customization, grow.