STUDY OF CORRELATION OF FOETAL BRAIN WEIGHT TO FOETAL TOTAL BODY WEIGHT TO ASSESS THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN

Abstract

Background: Owing to the present-day usage of advanced development of ultrasonographic technique with high resolution scanning, one is able to identify, analyse and report the congenital abnormalities of rd developing foetuses in their intrauterine life with great specicity. As the development of neural tube begins very early as 3 week of intrauterine period, a clinician is able to detect neural tube defects at a very early stage. The normal growth of the brain during the intrauterine period can be estimated by assessing the ratio of foetal brain weight to the total body weight of the foetus by measuring the various parameters of the foetuses. The weight of the foetal brain varies in various conditions like congenital heart defects, intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly, neural tube defects associated with folic acid deciency and due to various teratogenic factors. So, studying the ratio of foetal brain to total body weight is useful tool to diagnose various conditions. Methodology: A total of about 100 foetuses of different gestational ages were collected from the Gynaecology and Obstetrics department in King George Hospital and Victoria General Hospital, Visakhapatnam. It was ensured that the foetuses are properly embalmed as soon as they are procured and foetal height, weight and other important parameters required for the study were taken. Results: The ratios were calculated for gestational ages from 13 to 40 weeks. The ratio for brain declined very slowly throughout the period examined. An observation of practical importance of the brain weight/bodyweight ratios was virtually constant after 30 weeks of gestation. Conclusion: In this study foetal body weight is compared with the brain weight to correlate the subsequent brain development according to the weight of the foetus. By this study we can understand the foetal brain growth and compare results attained with the readings of foetal brain vol / weights got by non-invasive techniques like ultrasound, MRI scanning and identify the affected brain development in various conditions like congenital heart defects, intrauterine growth retardation, syndromes with associated microcephaly, zika virus infections and genetic anomalies etc