Original Articles
Assessment of gestational age by new Ballard’s score and its correlation with foot length | |
Dr Santosh Kumar, Dr. Priyanka Kadian, Dr. Gurdeep Singh Dhanjal, Dr. Jasninder Singh | |
Background: Neonatal death is one of the major contributors (50%) of Under-five child mortality and 70% of the infant mortality. The main causes of neonatal deaths are prematurity and low birth weight (LBW). Gestational age(GA) estimation plays a vital role in obstetric, perinatal and neonatal care. Foot length (FL) measurement can serve as a simple, easy and cost effective parameter for estimating GA. The aim of this study was to assess newborn foot length and determine its usefulness in identifying LBW/Preterm Babies. Methods: This is a cross sectional hospital based study of 100 newborn babies, done in Adesh Medical College and Hospital, Shahbad, Haryana. All live newborns of different gestational age within 72 hours of birth were included. Exclusion criterias: Babies with skeletal deformities of foot. Results: Out of 100 newborn, 54 babies were male (54%) and 46 were female (46%).Outofwhich71(71%)weretermand 29(29%)werepreterm,20(20%)were SGA, 80(80%) were AGA.Their gestational age ranged from 30 to 40 weeks.In this study,oncorrelationofgestationalageandfoot length,showedpositivecorrelationamongpreterm (r=0.328, p=0.006), term (r=0.642,p=0.031), SGA (r=0.261, p=0.015), AGA (r=0.271, p=0.008)There was significant correlation between foot length and gestational age by New Ballard Score with correlation coefficient of 0.243 (p value <0.001). Conclusions: Foot length had a high sensitivity and specificity in identifying preterm newborns, making it a reliable tool to identify preterm birth in a rural setting.Our study has shown a good correlation of foot length with gestational maturity and birth weight. Foot lengthwasfoundtobestronglycorrelatingwithGA assessment by new Ballard score. Foot length of 7.04 cm can be used as a cut-off point for differentiating between term and preterm babies. |
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