فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: It has been established that presence of lean umbilical cord with reduced Wharton`s jelly (WJ) in sonographic scans is a marker for delivery of a fetus at risk of being small for gestational age at birth. With improvement of ultrasound techniques, more studies have been investigating the alterations of the umbilical cord on pregnancy outcomes. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to determine the reference ranges of the umbilical cord area during pregnancy and to find out the association between umbilical cord morphometry and fetal anthropometric parameters. Results: The values of the area of the umbilical cord, umbilical vein and WJ increase consistently until 30 weeks of gestation, after which they reach a plateau. There was a significant relation between anthropometric parameters and umbilical cord measurements especially with the areas of the umbilical cord, umbilical vein and WJ. The regression equation for the umbilical cord area according to gestational age up to 30 weeks was y = 0.2159x2+23.828x325.59 and for the WJ area according to gestational age up to 30 weeks was y = 0.2124x2+17.613x221.66 Conclusions: Reference ranges for umbilical cord area have been generated. The area of the umbilical cord and other components of it increase as a function of gestational age. These measurements correlate with fetal size.