CORRELATION OF FOOT LENGTH AND HAND LENGTH AND OTHER ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASURMENTS WITH GESTIONAL AGE ASSISTED BY NEW BALLARD SCORE

Background: Gestational age is a cornerstone piece of clinical data used by physicians to conclude the timing of various screening investigations and assessments of the fetus and mother all through pregnancy. It is important to know an infant’s gestational age because its behavior and anticipated problems can be predicted on this basis. It is also important for prediction of morbidity, mortality and further management. Objectives: to study correlation of foot length and hand length and gestational age among preterm and term neonate. Methods: This is prospective study was carried out on 1000 neonates who delivered at sayed galal hospital 24 hours of life. Their gestational age ranged from 27 to 40 weeks. Gestational assessment will be done using modified Ballard’s scoring on day one. Foot Length will be measured using sliding caliper from December 2017 to November2018. Results: This study showed that hand length was higher in males than in females, the differences were statistically  significant beginning from week-30 until week-40.also it shows No statistical  significant difference between males and females regarding Ballard score at all gestational weeks 27 till 40th  also  there is no statistical  significant difference between males and females regarding Ballard and gestational age also there were statistical significant correlations between GA and anthropometric characteristics.(weight ,head circumference ,chest circumference ,hand length, foot length, Ballard score GA). Conclusion: male fetuses have more gestational weight gain and growth patterns than female particularly from 31 gestational weeks onward .head circumference , chest circumference , foot length  and hand length  statistically significant higher among male than females particularly around 30 and 33 gestational weeks onwards.. No statistically significant difference was observed between males and females as regard Ballard scoring system throughout all gestations investigated.