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Updated: May 13, 2026

Culturing and Measuring Fetal and Newborn Murine Long Bones
Published on: April 26, 2019
Is that femur really short? A survey of current and best practice in fetal biometry
Elizabeth A McCarthy1, Alexis Shub, Susan P Walker
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Perinatal Centre, Mercy Hospital for Women, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia. eamcca@unimelb.edu.au
Abstract:
A web-based survey of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists fellows and trainees enquired about fetal femur length reporting and found: 1 Heterogeneous (including unpublished) chart choices. 2 Popular charts are not always of highest quality. 3 z-score rarely used despite World Health Authority endorsement. Potential clinical risks include false-positive and false-negative diagnosis and confusion for both patient and staff. We recommend developing high-quality charts, publishing unpublished charts and describe methods to support best practice.

