Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 3, Issue 10 439-442, Copyright © 1984 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
The femur length/head circumference relation in obstetric sonography
F. P. Hadlock, R. B. Harrist, Y. Shah and S. K. Park
The relationship of sonographic femur length to biparietal diameter (BPD)
in utero may be useful in detecting short-limb dwarfism, hydrocephaly,
microcephaly, and measurement errors. Because BPD can be adversely affected
by head shape changes (e.g., dolichocephaly), falsely high or low values of
femur length/BPD could result. Because head circumference is less affected
by head shape changes than is BPD, it should be a better standard of head
size against which to judge limb length. The authors report normal values
for the relationship between femur length and head circumference, based on
a cross-sectional analysis of 361 normal fetuses (15-42 weeks) using
real-time ultrasound.
