European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: The development of the foetal kidneys can be monitored during the entire pregnancy by measuring their length and comparing them to typical charts. The ultrasonogram is thought to be a useful tool for assessing kidney growth and anomalies in foetuses, and it can help with the early detection and treatment of some kidney-related disorders.

Objectives:

1. To perform obstetric USG in healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancy between 20 weeks and term gestation to determine correlation between fetal kidney length and gestational age.

2. To derive nomogram for estimating the gestational age of fetus from ultrasonographically measured fetal kidney length.

3. To assess the accuracy of fetal kidney length                                                                                                                      measurement in determining the gestational age of the fetus and its accuracy with other fetal biometric indices.

Material & Methods: Study Design: Hospital based observational study. Study area: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Narayana medical college and hospital, tertiary care center at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. Study Period: April 2022 – March 2023. Study population: Pregnant women with uncomplicated pregnancy more than 20 weeks Attending Antenatal Outpatient department. Sample size: Study consisted a total of 100 subjects. Sampling Technique:  Simple Random technique. Study tools and Data collection procedure: All the statutory requirements under PNDT act were followed and form F was obtained from all the patients. All the relevant clinical history was obtained and the correct LMP was confirmed. Transabdominal ultrasonography was performed with patient in supine position. Good acoustics coupling was obtained using synthetic ultrasound gel. Ultrasonography is done using Siemens Sonoline or Philips HD 7 ultra sound scanner using a 3.5- 12MHz transducers, images were recorded in the thermal films using the digital camera Results: The association between the fetal measurements and FK GA. The correlation was best for FK GA versus AC (r: 0.876) and least for BPD (r: 0.808). All the correlation was statistically significant. Conclusion: FKL is reasonably a precise parameter for estimating GA. Measurement of FKL will prove significant when other biometric parameters failed to be measured in certain situations like engaged/fixed head and when head is not in correct plane. Hence, FKL can be used as a reliable parameter for determination of gestational age.