Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Equations describing percentiles for birth weight, head circumference, and length of preterm infants

Journal of Perinatology volume 26, pages 556–561 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To describe growth of prematurely born infants and create a growth chart adequate to assess growth of infants with less than 29 completed weeks of gestation.

Study design:

Birth weight, head circumference and length measurements of 7425 liveborn preterm infants from 1985 to 1997 were retrieved from a longitudinal database maintained by the neonatology division. The 3rd, 5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th and 97th percentiles of each measurement were determined and used for mathematical modeling.

Results:

Birth weight was described with an exponential function while head circumference and length were described with linear functions. A preterm growth chart for the 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles for birth weight, weight growth, head circumference and length was generated.

Conclusion:

The mathematical models of growth provide smooth representations of the percentiles across gestational ages.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

A:

constant for birth weight equation

AGA:

appropriate for gestational age

B:

growth velocity for birth weight equation

BW:

birth weight

C:

growth velocity for head circumference equation

D:

growth velocity for length equation

GA:

gestational age

HC:

head circumference

LEN:

length

LGA:

large for gestational age

NICU:

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

SGA:

small for gestational age

VUMC:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

WHO:

World Health Organization

References

  1. World Health Organization. A Growth Chart for International Use in Maternal and Child Health Care: Guidelines for Primary Health Care Personnel. World Health Organization: Geneva, 1978.

  2. World Health Organization. Physical Status: The Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry. Report of a WHO Expert Committee, Technical Report Series No. 854. World Health Organization: Geneva, 1995; 121–160.

  3. Williams RL, Creasy RK, Cunningham GC, Hawes WE, Norris FD, Tashiro M . Fetal growth and perinatal viability in California. Obstet Gynecol 1982; 59 (5): 624–632.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Lubchenco LO, Hansman C, Dressler M, Boyd E . Intrauterine growth as estimated from liveborn birth-weight data at 24–42 weeks of gestation. Pediatrics 1963; 32: 793–800.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Lubchenco LO, Hansman C, Boyd E . Intrauterine growth in length and head circumference as estimated from live births at gestational ages from 26 to 42 weeks. Pediatrics 1966; 37 (3): 403–408.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Usher R, McLean F . Intrauterine growth of live-born Caucasian infants at sea level: standards obtained from measurements in 7 dimensions of infants born between 25 and 44 weeks of gestation. J Pediatr 1969; 74 (6): 901–910.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Babson SG, Benda GI . Growth graphs for the clinical assessment of infants of varying gestational age. J Pediatr 1976; 89 (5): 814–820.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Engle WA . Age terminology during the perinatal period. Pediatrics 2004; 114 (5): 1362–1364.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Niklasson A, Ericson A, Fryer JG, Karlberg J, Lawrence C, Karlberg P . An update of the Swedish reference standards for weight, length and head circumference at birth for given gestational age (1977–1981). Acta Paediatr Scand 1991; 80 (8–9): 756–762.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Polin RA, Fox WW . Fetal and Neonatal Physiology, Volume 1, WB Sanders: Philadelphia, 1992, p 182.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Akaike H . A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Trans Automat Control 1974; 19 (6): 716–723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Schwarz G . Estimating the dimension of a model. Ann Statist 1978; 6 (2): 461–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hadlock FP, Deter RL, Harrist RB, Park SK . Estimating fetal age: computer-assisted analysis of multiple fetal growth parameters. Radiology 1984; 152 (2): 497–501.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ott WJ . Accurate gestational dating. Obstet Gynecol 1985; 66 (3): 311–315.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Persson PH, Weldner BM . Reliability of ultrasound fetometry in estimating gestational age in the second trimester. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1986; 65 (5): 481–483.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Dubowitz L . Assessment of gestational age in newborn: a practical scoring system. Arch Dis Child 1969; 44 (238): 782.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Ballard JL, Novak KK, Driver M . A simplified score for assessment of fetal maturation of newly born infants. J Pediatr 1979; 95 (5 Part 1): 769–774.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Ballard JL, Khoury JC, Wedig K, Wang L, Eilers-Walsman BL, Lipp R . New Ballard Score, expanded to include extremely premature infants. J Pediatr 1991; 119 (3): 417–423.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    W R Riddle

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    S C DonLevy, S T Rosenbloom & J P Shenai

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    B J LaFleur

  4. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    S T Rosenbloom

Authors
  1. W R Riddle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S C DonLevy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. B J LaFleur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S T Rosenbloom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. J P Shenai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to W R Riddle.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Riddle, W., DonLevy, S., LaFleur, B. et al. Equations describing percentiles for birth weight, head circumference, and length of preterm infants. J Perinatol 26, 556–561 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jp.7211572

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jp.7211572

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links