DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY OF ULTRASOUND IN MEASURING ESTIMATED FETAL WEIGHT WITHIN 48 HOURS BEFORE DELIVERY, KEEPING THE BABY WEIGHT AT BIRTH AS A GOLD STANDARD

Abstract

The article explores the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound in predicting fetal weight among those patients who have given birth within 48 hours before the conduct of the study. High-risk pregnancy is one of the areas where precise estimation of the weight of a baby is very relevant in deciding on the mode of delivery and the time of delivery. Ultrasound is a commonly used non-invasive scanning procedure, which estimates the fetal weight (EFW) using biometric parameters that demand measurements of the following: femur length, abdominal circumference, and biparietal diameter. Accuracy of ultrasound in the determination of true birth weight is however debatable. The research is a cross-sectional study that involves a sample of 265 women with the singleton pregnancy aged between 18 and 35 years and 29 to 40-week gestational age at Indus Hospital and Health Network , Sui campus. The research involves a comparison between ultrasound-determined EFW and birth weight with a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and general diagnostic accuracy calculation. Findings in this research give important information on the possibility of reliability in the estimated fetal weight by the use of ultrasound with possible benefit on the clinical decision making efficiency in obstetric care.