Surface Area and Age in Prenatal Life

Abstract

In a preceding paper we have given a series of empirical formulae for the relation between the surface area and some of the major dimensions of the human body in prenatal life. These formulae are as follows:S = 0.2808Lch2,278 (1)S = 0.4545Lcr2,401 (2)S = 5.188W0,750 (3)In these expressions S is the surface area of the body in square centimeters, Lch is the total or crown heel length in centimeters, Lcr is the sitting height or crown rump length, and W is body weight in grams.The increase in surface area with respect to age in the fetal period may be estimated by the substitution of expressions for time in terms of body length or body weight in this period. We have done this using the empirical formulae of Scammon and Calkins.1, 2 In these expressions age is given in lunar months (of 28 days) dated from the first day of the last menstruation. These expressions only hold for the fetal period proper (from 3 lunar months to birth).The accompanying table gives the calculated values for the surface area of the ...