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Femur length/abdominal circumference ratio. Poor predictor of macrosomic fetuses in diabetic mothers.
Author(s) -
Benson C B,
Doubilet P M,
Saltzman D H,
Greene M F,
Jones T B
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/jum.1986.5.3.141
Subject(s) - medicine , cutoff , obstetrics , fetal macrosomia , fetus , femur , population , circumference , predictive value , pregnancy , gestation , surgery , gestational diabetes , physics , environmental health , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , biology , genetics
Antenatal diagnosis of fetal macrosomia can affect the management of diabetic mothers. Because the sonographically determined femur length/abdominal circumference (FL/AC) ratio has been shown to differ in macrosomic and non‐macrosomic fetuses (in a population containing few diabetics), its value in establishing the diagnosis of macrosomia was examined. The results indicate that the FL/AC ratio differs in non‐macrosomic (20.4 +/‐ 1.6) and macrosomic (19.5 +/‐ 1.4) fetuses of diabetic mothers, but there is considerable overlap. For no cutoff value is there a high sensitivity and high specificity. The positive predictive value is 36‐43 per cent (depending on the cutoff), only slightly greater than the prevalence (26 per cent in the study population). The authors conclude that the FL/AC ratio is not useful in predicting macrosomia among diabetic mothers.