Abstract
At birth, growth and maturation of the newborn are usuallyassessed by clinical, anthropometric and neurological examinations. A new quantitative and objective method is presented: the length of cubitus and radius. A total of 156 newborns, 75 males and 81 females appropiate for gestational age (AGE), from the 24th through the 40th week of gestation were studied. Three independent investigators participated in the collection of the data, only one of them, by necesity, knew the date of the last menstrual period. Bone length was measured by a “DIAL CALIPER HELIOS” with a sensitivity of 10−5 meters. Bone growth in length from the 24th through the 40th week is a linear function with apparently two different slopes, one between 24 and 30 weeks, the other from 31 through 40 weeks. Weekly growth was 1.0 mm for the cubitus and 0.9 mm for the radius. No significant statistical differences in bone growth were observed between males and females. The standard error of the method - was ± 2 weeks. Since by design, cases of intrauterine malnutrition (IM) were not included in the study, its impact on bone length growth could ho be assessed. The hypothesis that IM affects bone length growth is now under study.
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Canosa, C., Candela, V., Folch, F. et al. 90: Intrauterine bone growth. Pediatr Res 10, 885 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197610000-00080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197610000-00080