P10.18: Ultrasound‐determined fetal subcutaneous tissue thickness (SCTT) for a birthweight prediction model

Abstract

In the last few years there has been an increasing interest in the ultrasonography of fetal fat and lean mass. Our study is based on the detection of the fetal subcutaneous tissue thickness (SCTT) by ultrasound (US) probing. We investigated 201 healthy singleton pregnants by ultrasound scans in order to find a birthweight prediction model completely based on fetal SCTT parameters. A whole set of SCTT parameters, including humerus fat and lean mass (HFM, HLM), femoral fat and lean mass (FFM, FLM), subscapular fat mass (SSFM), abdominal fat mass (AFM) and circumference (AC) has been systematically studied for each enrolled subject. Ultrasound measurements have been analyzed by means of the “ANOVA repeated measures model” over three patterns of growth trend. Among the different investigated parameters, only AFM, AC and FLM showed a statistically significant trend. The growth rate (β-slope) of the selected parameters was computed and the correlation coefficient with the birthweight, together with the Kendall rank correlation tau, were calculated. We provided a graphical birthweight prediction model for clinical purpose starting from accurate ultrasonographic imaging and fat-estimating. This model is based upon a complete analysis of the ultrasound estimated body components.