Abstract

Hiba Tariq*, Habiba Nadeem*, Muhammad Okasha*, Ghulam Fatima, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Sadiq Amin, Mazahir Hussain, Zain Gillani and Tuseef Ahmed

ABSTRACT

Background: The fetus is thought to have an inherent growth potential that under normal circumstances, yields a healthy newborn of appropriate size. Knowledge of weight of fetus in intrauterine life is important for the obstetrician to decide the management plan for delivery whether it would be vaginal or cesarean section and also to decide the place of delivery in order to optimize the fetomaternal outcome. Objective: The study was conducted to evaluate sonographically different methods of estimating of fetal weight at term and to determine their relative accuracy in predicting the actual weight after birth. Methodology: Cross-sectional study was performed and the duration of the study was 3 months. The setting where the study was performed in Mansoorah hospital and Gilani ultrasound centre Lahore Pakistan. Convenient sampling technique was applied to perform the test and the sample size was 116. Four formulae were used for the estimation of exact fetal birth weight which were hadlock’s formula, shepard’s formula, shinozuka formula and warsof’s formula. Results: It was found from the study that these four equations are most widely used in all over the world for the estimation of birth weight. Further study confirmed that warsof’s formula is the most useful and better method the estimation of weight. Indetpendent T-test was applied to determine the means of each formulae comparing them with the mean of actual birth weight. The results showed that warsof’s formula stated clear estimates confirming it to be the best methods for estimations of fetal weights. After warof’s, shepard’s formula was better and can evaluate specific results. Hadlock’s formula overestimated fetal weight so was not identified as a better method for birth weight estimation. The study showed that different formula can be used for birth weight evaluation according to country. Each country use different formula according to their requirements and environment. It was concluded that all four methods were showing good results and can be used for the estimation of birth weight. Conclusion: The study described the sensitivity and accuracy of different formulae in the pregnant women for the detection of fetal birth weight. The results determined the accurate and ideal formula for the detection of birth weight. The mean of each formula was compared with the mean of actual birth weight. Thus, results showed that warsof’s formula is one of the best method for the detection of actual birth weight. When t test was applied to the formulae it was determined that mean of warsof’s formula was 3.2065kgs that showed much resemblance with the mean of actual birth weight that was 3.2727kgs. Hadlock’s method is mostly used formula in Pakistan, but the difference between mean of hadlock’s formula and actual birth weight is more therefore is not considered as ideal method. Furthermore, Shepard’s formula was also used to find birth weight. Mean of that formula was 3.3641kgs, mean of Shinozuki formula was 3.3763kgs and in last the mean of hadlock’s formula was 3.4106kgs.