Sonographic Correlation Between Distal Femoral Epiphysis Ossification Centre And Gestational Age From 28 Weeks To 40 Weeks In Population Of Faisalabad City

ABSTRACT: Gestational age assessment is one of the most important tool used for estimation of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Age estimation of fetus can be recorded with the help of various parameters such as biparietal diameter, abdominal circumference, head circumference, length of the kidneys, crown rump length, length of the long bones and ossification centers. OBJECTIVES: To assess sonographic correlation between distal femoral epiphysis ossification center and gestational age from 28 weeks to 40 weeks in population of Faisalabad city. METHODS: It was a cross-sectional, analytical study with 281 pregnant women with 28 weeks to 40 weeks gestational age visiting Rabia Ultrasound Center, Faisalabad were included. Non probability purposive sampling technique was used. Data were entered, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. RESULTS: By 34.39± 2.54 weeks of gestational 74.4% fetus showed presence of DFE, the size of whom corresponds to their gestational age. Pearson Correlation was applied to adjusted gestational age by US showing value of 0.973 to femur length and 0.889 for size of DFE and there was a significant indicating positive correlation by coefficient of 1. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of gestational age in third trimester by measuring DFE is a reliable diagnostic tool in patients unsure of LMPas DFE appears in majority of patients by 34weeks. KEYWORDS: Dist a l f emor a l epiphysis, ossification center, last menstrual period, gestational age