Curvas de crescimento intra-uterino de uma população de alto nível socioeconômico Intrauterine growth curves in a high-income population

Objective: growth curves can be used to assess intrauterine growth, to predict diseases in newborns, and to characterize different populations. The objective of this study was to obtain intrauterine growth curves of newborns from the Hospital Albert Einstein’s Maternity Unit (MAE) and compare them with intrauterine growth curves of a population from California, USA. Methods: we plotted the growth curves according to weight at birth and gestational age, which was obtained according to information from the mother, of newborns with over 32 weeks of term and from February 1995 to February 1999. We calculated the 10, 50, and 90 th percentiles of weight at birth for each gestational age and compared them with those of the growth curves from California. Results: the growth curves for the 10 th and the 50 th percentiles did not differ from the growth curves from California. For the 90 th percentile, however, the MAE curves were lower than that from California. The MAE population presented less small-for-gestational age (SGA) and large-for-gestational age (LGA) babies when assessed according to the California curves .The categories of SGA, normal, and LGA for both male and female babies indicated a statistically significant relation with the weight gain of mothers. Conclusions: the two populations assessed in this study were different according to intrauterine growth curves. Further studies should be carried out in order to identify specific factors that may concern the MAE population.