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Association of isolated short fetal femur with intrauterine growth restriction
Author(s) -
Vermeer N.,
Bekker M. N.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
prenatal diagnosis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.956
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1097-0223
pISSN - 0197-3851
DOI - 10.1002/pd.4068
Subject(s) - intrauterine growth restriction , fetal growth , fetus , femur , medicine , obstetrics , pregnancy , biology , genetics , surgery
Objectives To analyze the outcomes of fetuses referred because of short femur length. Methods This was a retrospective study of all singleton pregnancies referred to a tertiary care referral hospital with a femur length below the 5 th percentile. All ultrasound scan reports, including Doppler, fetal karyotyping, pregnancy outcome and neonatal data were analyzed. Results In 112 patients, 87 (78%) had an isolated short femur and 25 (22%) had a non‐isolated short femur. The non‐isolated cases consisted of chromosomal disorders (n = 6), skeletal abnormalities (n = 6), multiple abnormalities (n = 12) and 1 genetic disorder. In the isolated group 37 cases (43%) were intrauterine growth restricted (positive likelihood ratio 1.20, negative likelihood ratio 0.45). In 33 cases the short femur was unexplained and 17 referrals were considered false‐positive. The growth restricted group had significant more abnormal Doppler measurements (p = 0.01), caesarean deliveries (p = 0.043) and admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (p = 0.001). Conclusion An isolated short femur is associated with intrauterine growth restriction and adverse pregnancy outcome. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.