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Estimation of gestational age using trans-cerebellar diameter: a sonographic study of a cohort of healthy pregnant women of Igbo ethnic origin in a suburb of Lagos, southwest Nigeria

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Abstract

Aim

To use a sonographic method to determine the usefulness of trans-cerebellar diameter (TCD) as an independent estimator of gestational age (GA).

Methods

A convenience sample of 257 healthy pregnant women of Igbo ethnic origin with singleton normal pregnancy whose GA ranged from 16 to 40 weeks were examined. GA was calculated from the date of onset of the last menstrual period (LMP) and was used as the standard criterion, while the biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and femur length (FL) were used to estimate GA. TCD was measured and employed to derive regression models utilized to assess GA.

Results

The mean TCD was 32.0 ± 11.6 mm; TCD had a strong positive linear relationship with GA (R = 0.988; R2 = 0. 975; P =  < 0.001). The GA that was estimated using regression models, which were derived using the sonographically measured TCD, was closer to the actual GA in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy than the GA estimated using other fetal parameters.

Conclusion

In a population of healthy pregnant women of Igbo ethnic origin living in Oshodi, Lagos State, Nigeria, the sonographically measured TCD was more accurate as a single estimator of GA than BPD, HC, AC, and FL in the late stages of pregnancy. Subject to further validation, the nomograms derived using TCD proposed in the present study could be used as reliable GA estimators in the late stages of pregnancy among women who are unsure of the date of onset of their LMP.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all the pregnant women we recruited. Some of whom not only answered questions concerning their genealogy but also invited their spouses or parents to convince us that they, their parents and spouses, and their spouses’ parents were truly of Igbo ethnic origin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiography, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Yaba Campus, Taylor Drive, Off Edmund Crescent, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria

    Cletus Uche Eze

  2. Azzon Medical Diagnostic Services, 7 Church Street, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria

    Innocent Ubaka Onu

  3. Department of Radiodiagnosis, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idiaraba, Lagos, Nigeria

    Adekunle A. Adeyomoye

  4. Ave Maria Hospital, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

    Ernest Ruto Upeh

Authors
  1. Cletus Uche Eze
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  2. Innocent Ubaka Onu
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  3. Adekunle A. Adeyomoye
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  4. Ernest Ruto Upeh
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Correspondence to Cletus Uche Eze.

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All procedures performed in the study were done in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Eze, C.U., Onu, I.U., Adeyomoye, A.A. et al. Estimation of gestational age using trans-cerebellar diameter: a sonographic study of a cohort of healthy pregnant women of Igbo ethnic origin in a suburb of Lagos, southwest Nigeria. J Ultrasound 24, 41–47 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-020-00448-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-020-00448-9

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