Association of Measurement of the Fetal Transverse Cerebellar Diameter with Gestational Age

Background:
Ultrasound techniques during pregnancy play a very important role in evaluating fetal growth, diagnosis of retardation, intrauterine growth, determining the termination of pregnancy, determining the time of invasive diagnostic tests, amniocentesis.
The cerebellum can be seen at 12 weeks of gestation and is the largest posterior part of the brain. The cerebellum cross section can be a predictive factor in determining the age of the embryo’s ultrasound pregnancy.
Purpose:
The aim of this study is to investigate association of measurement of the fetal transverse cerebellar diameter with gestational age.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was performed on pregnant women with gestational age of 40-40 weeks. Individuals were evaluated based on gestational age in three periods (14- 20, 11-21, 30-40 weeks). Patients underwent ultrasound and then the cross section of the cerebellum in the posterior cavity was measured with butterfly properties in millimeters. The gestational age was obtained by ultrasound with a calculated value of LMP or ultrasonography before 20 weeks, and the pregnancy gestational neomagram chart was based on TCD. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 22.0 software. A significant level of 5% was considered significant.
Results:
The mean age of the mothers was 26.15
± 0.64 years and the mean gestational age was 24.81 ± 0.60 weeks and the mean cross- sectional dimension of the cerebellum was
23.86 ± 0.54 mm. As the Pregnancy age increased, in mothers with different gestational age, body mass indexes, size of cross section of the cerebellum have increased significantly. There is also a significant relationship between the size of fetal femur length, fetal abdominal circumference, the approximate weight of the fetus and the diameter of the embryo with the gestational age. (P <0.05).
Conclusion:
Measuring cross section of the embryo’s cerebellum in the estimation of gestational age in the second and third trimester has a diagnostic accuracy that is approximately equivalent to measuring the fetal length of the embryo and the circumference of the abdomen and the diameter of the embryo
Keywords: Cross sectional cerebellum, gestational age, Ultrasonography.