Foetal kidney length as a parameter for determination of gestational age in pregnancy by ultrasonography

Background: Establishing the gestational age of the fetus, especially in late trimester is a challenge to aptly treat the pregnant woman. Ultrasound parameters like BPD, HC, AC and FL in second and third trimesters are not very reliable for dating the pregnancy. Fetal kidney length has been studied and shown to strongly correlate with the gestational age in late trimesters even in IUGR fetuses. Methods: This cross section hospital based study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, P.B.M. and Associated Group of Hospitals, attached to Sardar Patel Medical College, Bikaner during study period of one year from 2015 to 2016. 100 pregnant women with known dates of different parity and ages were included in this study. Results: According to the observations, the mean deviation from the gestational age at all the weeks is least for KL. The result indicates that the kidney length in the present study correlated well with the assigned gestational age and found almost same as all the ultrasound biometric parameters put together. Conclusions: Kidney length can be used as an individual parameter in estimating gestational age, especially in later trimesters, where biometric indices may not be much reliable.