Abstract
The fetal movements during different gestational weeks are essential for normal musculoskeletal development. The kinematic characteristics of fetuses with small differences in gestational weeks may be different and important. Ultrasonographic videos of fetal kicking action and plantarflexion action were collected from three healthy pregnant women (24, 27, and 30 gestational weeks) with normal fetal development. The kinematic characteristics, including angular range and angular velocity, were analyzed. These kinematic parameters were measured using simi motion. The final knee angle was found to decrease with progressive gestational weeks. Compared with 24 w, the knee joint angle at 27 w and 30 w was significantly reduced at the end of a kick-type movement (p < 0.01). Except for the mean angular velocity of the knee joint, there were no significant differences in the other conditions. The value at 30 w for mean angular velocity was significantly higher than that at 24 w (p = 0.02). In the ankle joint, no significant differences were observed between different conditions. Therefore, we can conclude that there was no significant difference in the kinematic characteristics of the ankle joint for small gestational age gaps, but there was a significant difference in the knee joint. As the gestation weeks increase, the range of kicking motion tends to decrease. The reason may be that with the increase of gestational weeks, fetal lower limb musculoskeletal development is gradually enhanced; the slower growth rate indicates that development reaches a peak level in weeks 24 to 30.
Highlights
Fetal movement during pregnancy is a natural process of fetal growth and development, and fetal movement plays an essential role in fetal musculoskeletal development [1]
The lower limb joint angle changes during kicking motion at 24, 27, and 30 gestational weeks are presented in Figure 2 and Table 1
There were no significant differences between gestational weeks in the knee joint during the start position of kicking, the final angle of the knee joint was smaller as the gestational week increased
Summary
Fetal movement during pregnancy is a natural process of fetal growth and development, and fetal movement plays an essential role in fetal musculoskeletal development [1]. Previous studies have used a variety of methods to study fetal movement, such as opensim simulation, finite element modeling, finite element methods, and video analysis using autoCAD. The generation of a three-dimensional finite element model of the uterine environment during pregnancy using dynamic MRI of fetal movement and use musculoskeletal modeling technology to estimate fetal joint force has been investigated [7]. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) based medical imaging using finite element methods (FEM) can be used to monitor fetal movement [8]. These methods are time-consuming and laborious; from modeling to analysis, the process is tedious, and the accuracy of the final model may not be accurate. Kinematic analysis of fetal motion videos by software is a simple and feasible way to understand fetal motion [9]
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