الفهرس 
F ETAL W EIGHT E STIMATIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: The placenta is a transient organ of pregnancy which functions as a critical interface between the mother and the fetus. Filled with maternal blood spaces, which allows transfer of nutrients and drugs to the fetus, it has respiratory, nutritive and excretory functions.
Objectives: The aim of the work is to assess the accuracy of placental thickness in predicting birth weight and neonatal outcome (Apgar score) in normal pregnant women.
Patients and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital at pre labor unit and included Ninty normal pregnant women at term who had admitted for elective cesarean section. The women were on the average 27.30 years old ± 4.68 years with an average of gestational age of 38.68 wks ± 0.63 wks taking in consideration that the cases had accurate gestational dating for singleton viable pregnancy and excluding Multiple pregnancy, Pregnant women with placenta previa.
Results: The results show there were highly statistically significant positive relation between placental thickness by U/S and fetal weight by U/S and neonatal weight with p-value < 0.01. There was no statistically significant relation between placental thickness by U/S and Apgar score at 1 and 5 min, NICU admission and cause of NICU admission with p-value = 0.916, 0.105, 0.610 and 0.659 respectively. There was no statistically significant relation between placental thickness by U/S and anthropometric measures, RBS and blood pressure of the studied patients while BMI showed highly statistically significant positive relation with placental thickness with p-value = 0.007.
Conclusion: There is strong correlation between placental thickness and actual neonatal weight, as thin placenta associated with higher incidence of low birth weight and thick placenta associated with increased birth weight.