Preterm Birth: Case Definition & Guidelines For Data Collection, Analysis, And Presentation Of Immunisation Safety Data PMC

We developed a machine learning model based on ultrasound images from two independent datasets. Ultrasound images from the Fetal Growth Longitudinal Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st21, Project were used to train, validate and test the model. External validation was then performed on ultrasound images from the INTERBIO-21st Fetal Study22 which were unseen by the model during the development phase.

Factors to consider include the quality of the scan, ultrasound method, and all available clinical information. When performed with quality and precision, ultrasound alone is more accurate than a “certain” menstrual date for determining gestational age in the first and second trimesters (≤ 23 weeks) in spontaneous conceptions, and it is the best method for estimating the delivery date . When available, in the clinical context, it is a valid and applicable measure, especially when estimating gestation of less than or equal to 33 weeks. Its limitations are discussed as being a determinant based on self-reporting and therefore felt to be imprecise. Studies have shown, however, that women who were certain of their LMP were accurate in their assessment of pregnancy duration compared with their ultrasound dating .

Figure 1 demonstrates the observed gestational age based on the LMP (confirmed by first-trimester ultrasonogram) plotted against the gestational age estimated by the NICHD formula applied to our population for gestational weeks 14–40. The figure shows that the accuracy of estimation of the formula is higher early in gestation and decreases with advancing gestation. In today’s ultrasound-savvy environment, ultrasound biometry performed by an experienced provider has a fairly consistent 8% margin of error at any gestation . Therefore, one can potentially calculate and compare this margin of error against a dating discrepancy at any point in pregnancy.

However, there is no role for elective delivery in a woman with a suboptimally dated pregnancy. Without a risk for the woman or the fetus that is considered sufficient to warrant delivery, elective delivery could introduce unnecessary risk of neonatal morbidity if the pregnancy proves to be earlier in gestation than originally estimated. The use of caution with the terms used and attention to their definitions is essential in efforts to understand the causes and consequences of preterm birth.

Gestational age is the age of the pregnancy from the last normal menstrual period , and fetal age is the actual age of the growing baby. 12 Accurate dating of the pregnancy is essential in the use of any parameter. In the absence of reliable dating, serial scans at two-or KenyanCupid three-week intervals must be performed to identify IUGR. It should always be remembered that each parameter measured has an error potential of about one week up to 20 gestational weeks, about two weeks from 20 to 36 weeks of gestation, and about three weeks thereafter.

Assisted Reproductive Technology and Gestational Age

A prospective evaluation of femur length as a predictor of gestational age. Transvaginal ultrasonography in first trimester of pregnancy and its comparison with transabdominal ultrasonography. Cervical cryotherapy is a medical procedure that involves freezing and destroying the abnormal tissue in the cervix . Women report some cramping or pressure and a sensation of cold in the vaginal area. It is generally a relatively painless procedure with little or no scarring in the area treated.

Outcomes

If you receive a test after week 6, your healthcare provider will begin to be concerned, if there is no gestational sac. 21 Pregnancy dating should be confirmed with auscultation of fetal heart tones between 10 and 12 weeks, and with fetal quickening between 16 and 18 weeks in women who have been pregnant before or between 18 and 19 weeks in first pregnancies. Confirmation of fetal maturity may also be obtained by examining the ossification centers. The distal femoral epiphysis appears at a mean age of weeks’ gestation, but may be seen as early as 29 weeks’ gestation ; its size increases linearly with gestational age.

The difference is explained by a later diagnosis of spontaneous pregnancy versus assisted reproduction pregnancy, and an early loss is easily overlooked. In fact, vaginal bleeding – a common sign of early pregnancy loss – can be confused with delayed menses and the loss remains unrecognized. The most common cause of a first trimester pregnancy loss is embryonal genetic abnormalities, which occurs in more than 50% of the cases, with aneuploidy being the most frequent abnormality5,6. Performance of Garbhini-GA1 formula, a non-linear function of crown-rump length , was equivalent to published formulae for estimation of first trimester GA (LoA, − 0.46,0.96 weeks). We found that CRL was the most crucial parameter in estimating GA and no other clinical or socioeconomic covariates contributed to GA estimation.

Amiel-Tison and Amiel-Tison et al. have noted accelerated neuromaturation in some infants with IUGR, infants born to mothers with hypertension, and infants of multiple gestations. When preterm IUGR infants and infants of multiple gestations are born after 33 to 34 weeks gestation, they may have fewer complications of prematurity than expected for their gestational age (Allen, 2005b; Ley et al., 1997). Infants born with IUGR before 34 weeks gestation have greater mortality and morbidity than preterm appropriate for gestational age infants of the same gestational age (Garite et al., 2004; Tyson et al., 1995).

Algorithm design and development

This is most difficult in fetuses born at 21 to 24 weeks of gestation. How many of these infants have been categorized in the past as live births instead of fetal deaths is unknown, as is how this categorization varies from region to region and even among health care providers at the same institution. A willingness to resuscitate a very immature infant who has a transient heart beat or gasp at delivery changes the classification of that infant from a fetal death to an infant death. This type of change in how an infant is classified has only a small impact on the preterm birth rate , but could contribute substantially to rising U.S. Weight for gestational age distribution curves are very different when fetal weights are imputed from prenatal ultrasound data and are compared to birthweight for gestational age distribution curves for infants born in a similar population (Bernstein et al., 1994).