A correlative study to evaluate the gestational age by sonological measurement of placental thickness in normal second and third trimester pregnancy

Abstract

Original Research ArticleA correlative study to evaluate the gestational age by sonological measurement of placental thickness in normal second and third trimester pregnancy Sujit Pant 1 , Sunita Dashottar 2 * INTRODUCTIONAccurate knowledge of the Gestational Age (GA) is important for the good antenatal care and the successful deliveries of babies. The most useful information provided by the obstetrics ultrasound is the accurate determination of the gestational age. 1 As significant numbers of pregnant women are unsure of their last menstrual period, determination of the gestational age mostly relies solely on sonographic measurements of the fetal parts such as the biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), occipito-frontal diameter (OFD), ABSTRACTBackground: The dating of the pregnancy starts well before the fertilization has occurred because the gestational age is calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP). Accurate knowledge of the Gestational Age (GA) is the key for the good antenatal care and successful deliveries of babies. Menstrual history can be unreliable or misleading at many times. There may be fallacy in the measurement of the fetal biometric parameters in estimating the gestational age in some situation. So, there is a need of another parameter for supplementing the gestational age estimation with minimal error. The aim of the study was to evaluate the placental thickness as a parameter for estimation of gestational age and also to assess the growth pattern of placenta with advancing gestational age. Methods: A total of 110 pregnant women who selected randomly from the antenatal clinics (between the gestational ages from 14 weeks to 40 weeks) who did not have any maternal or fetal complications. The biometric parameters: Biparietal Diameter (BPD), Head Circumference (HC), Abdominal Circumference (AC), Femur Length (FL) and the Placental thickness (PT) were measured by ultrasound machine LOGIQ P5 unit with a curvilinear 3.5 MHz transducer. Mean value of the placental thickness along with the standard deviation (SD) and 95% confidence interval were calculated for each gestational age from 14 weeks to 40 weeks. Pearson's correlation analysis and linear regression analysis was done quantifying the relationship between the gestational age in weeks and the placental thickness in millimetres. Results:The mean values of placental thickness show a perfect positive relationship (increasing trend) with gestational age and the mean value of placental thickness almost correspond to the gestational age till 35 weeks of the gestational age and fall marginally from 36 weeks. Placental thickness showed positive and significant correlation with gestational age (P-value<0.001) and Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) of 0.990. Conclusions: Placental thickness can be an additional parameter for estimation of the gestational age as it almost corresponds with the gestational age in second and third trimesters. Also, any abnormal placental thickness for the particular gestational age shoul...

Study of placental thickness with respect to gestational age and fetal weight by ultrasonographical evaluation

“…Most of the antenatal women were primipara i.e. 53% whereas parity ranged from 0-3 which is comparable with the other studies [9,10] . The mean placental thickness had no correlation with age group (p value 0.487 nonsignificant).…”

“…It was observed that mean placental thickness at a particular gestation had no correlation with parity and the p value was non-significant (0.258). Pant et al [9] also found no correlation between parity and placental thickness.…”

Placental thickness as a sonographic biomarker for gestational age among singleton pregnancies

“…In the study done by Pant et al the mean placental thickness for groups with gestational age in weeks 14-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35 were 18.35, 23.62, 28.88 and 32.62 mm respectively which almost correspond to the mid-points of the gestational age. 6 Jain et al in their study observed that the mean placental thickness increased with advancing gestational age, almost matching from 27-33 weeks of gestation. 7 In the present study, there was progressive increment in placental thickness till term in par with the gestational age.…”

“…In the earlier study by Pant et al the placental thickness almost increased parallel with the placental thickness till 35weeks of gestation after which it falls by 1-3mm than the gestational age. 6 In the study by Grannum et al there was a gradual decrease in the placental thickness after 32weeks of gestation till term. 8…”

Placental Thickness and Its Correlation with Gestational Age: A Cross-sectional Ultrasonographic Study

“…Placental thickness correlates with gestational age in the second and third trimesters and may be used as an alternative method for the evaluation of latter. [5] We conducted this study to evaluate the correlation between placental thickness and gestational age.…”