Prenatal detection of a high-risk group for intrauterine growth restriction based on sonographic fetal biometry.

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to evaluate the significance of sonographic fetal biometry in predicting low birth weight.

METHOD: Five hundred and sixty-eight single-term pregnancies were analyzed. They were stratified into seven subgroups by birth weight deviation (BWD). Among the 568 pregnancies, 115 were revealed to be small-for-gestational-age (SGA) (birth weight less than mean -1.5 S. D.). When IUGR was suspected by routine sonographic fetal biometry, 'IUGR work-up' was carried out. The diagnostic performance of our screening method for the detection of SGA pregnancies in the general population was calculated.

RESULT: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and odds ratio of our screening method for the detection of SGA pregnancies in the general population were 73.0, 96.6, 83.2, 98.0% and 131.0, respectively.

CONCLUSION: These data suggest that sonographic biometry is useful for the prenatal detection of high-risk cases of fetal growth restriction.