[Ultrasound measurement of fetal head and body sizes in the assessment of fetal growth].

The growth of the ultrasound biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), chest circumference (CC) and abdominal circumference (AC) during normal pregnancy is presented. A total of 799 measurements of 619 pregnant women from 20 to 42 weeks gestation were taken. 1) The correlation coefficient between gestational weeks and BPD, HC, CC, AC was 0.901, 0.972, 0.990, 0.988 respectively. 2) The correlation of HC, CC and AC was HC greater than AC greater than CC before 35 weeks but after 35 weeks it was AC greater than HC greater than CC. 3) The growth of large-for-date fetuses (LFD) was more rapid than that of appropriate-for-date fetuses (AFD). It was difficult to detect LFD before 30 weeks. 4) In the group of small-for-date fetuses, the HC/AC ratio was always greater than one. It was suggested that the growth of the fetal body was slower than that of the head.