BACKGROUND Maternal ambient air pollution exposure is associated with reduced birthweight. Few studies have examined the effect on growth in utero and none have examined the effect of exposure to particulates less than 2.5µm (PM2.5) and possible effect modification by smoking status. OBJECTIVES Examine the effect of maternal exposure to ambient concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxi...

Biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC) and femur length (FL) were compared by race and sex in 5,405 ultrasound examinations done on 2,831 women. Black fetuses had significantly longer FL than white fetuses; male fetuses had larger BPD, HC and AC than females. The differences in BPD, HC and AC correlated with the different birth weights observed between ...

In a previous communication, Robinson et al. (1973) compared the value of five methods of fetal monitoring in respect of their ability to differentiate between normal and growth-retarded pregnancies in a small series of patients. These tests included sonar biparietal cephalometry, 24 h urinary oestriol assays and determination of serum oxytocinase, total alkaline phosphatase and heat-stable alk...

Thinning of parietal bone bilaterally is extremely rare but well known phenomenon. Approximate prevalence is 0.4-0.5% according to radiological scans, case reports and anthropologic researches. Even though biparietal osteodystrophy occurs mostly in over 60-year-old women, it shows no special association with race or geographical area tendency. Current definition was changed by understanding tha...

Three hundred depressed pregnant women were recruited at approximately 20 weeks gestation. They were then divided by a median split into high and low urinary cortisol level groups. The high cortisol group had higher CES-D depression scores and higher inhibition (BIS) scores prenatally. Their fetuses had smaller head circumference, abdominal circumference, biparietal diameter and fetal weight. T...

With the aim of determining fetal growth kinetics, prenatal data were analysed which had been longitudinally collected in the framework of a perinatal growth survey. The sample comprised 238 singleton normal pregnancies, selected in Genoa and Turin (between 1987 and 1990), and repeatedly assessed by ultrasound scans (five to nine per pregnancy). Five morphometric traits were considered: BPD (bi...