Ultrasonic recognition of two types of growth retardation by measurement of four fetal dimensions

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the study and research effort directed towards growth retarded babies. The attention of both the \obstetrician and pediatrician has focused on this problem because these babies have a high incidence of perinatal death and intrapartum asphyxia, and are at increased risk in the neonatal period from pulmonary hemorrhage, hypoglycaemia and fetal abnormality [3, 4, 13]. In the long term there is evidence that severely growth retarded babies suffer from intellectual impairment, especially if neonatal management is less than adequate [1]. Thus it is important to recognise these babies and the earlier in fetal life the better. Increased sophistication of clinical and laboratory methods has enabled better antenatal detection and it is now widely accepted that serial ultrasonic biometry is the most accurate method for physically measuring fetal growth [4,10,11,12,15, 23]. In a recentpaper,Rosso and WINICK [25] supported the hypothesis that there are different types of infants with intrauterine growth retardation and that these different types can and should be recognised. Among ultrasonic workers, CAMPBELL [6], KURJAK et al [15], and HANSMANN [10] despribed two different patterns of growth retardation which may be of importance in the short and long term prognosis of the fetus. However, no one has analysed this material in connection with perinatal complications of such problem babies. We have reported our preliminary Undings elsewhere [22] and in this paper we present our experience with ultrasonic recognition of these two types by measurement of four fetal dimensions. Curriculum vitae