DETERMINING THE GESTATIONAL USING FOETAL KIDNEY LENGTH DURING THIRD TRIMESTER PREGNANCY IN INDIAN POPULATION

Abstract

Introduction: Although fetal biometry measurements aid in an accurate estimation of GA in the early second trimester, the biological variations of size lead to these parameters' accuracy to vary as the age of the fetus advanced, making it challenging to date a fetus accurately in the late second or third trimester. Therefore, this study conducted to assess correlation of foetal kidney length with gestational age in third trimester of pregnancy. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional observational study conducted among 120 pregnant women in the 3rd trimester. For obtaining foetal kidney length, longitudinal section was taken in sagittal plane using ultrasound. Results: Out of total 120 cases, the left kidney length (LKL) is slightly higher than the right kidney length (RKL). Mean kidney lengths (MKL) rose consist-ently with gestational age, from 27.18 ± 2.2O mm at 28 weeks to З8.O ± l.8O mm at З9 weeks. RKL, LKL and MKL were positively correlated with gestational age. R squared (R2) value was 0.769 which is a good fit and indicates that this regression model explains 76.9% changes in GA with MKL. Conclusion: Foetal kidney length is a reliable measure of gestational age. Measuring the foetal mean kidney length using ultrasound is a simple tech-nique to determine the gestational age. In third trimester pregnancy with un-certain LMP, the length of the foetal kidneys may be extremely helpful in de-termining gestational age.