Ultrasonic evaluation of liver development in the fetus in utero

A total of 573 measurements of the human fetal liver size were made from 18 to 41 weeks gestation. The right hepatic lobe increased linearly throughout gestation, whereas the left lobe increased linearly until approximately 32 weeks gestation, after which a slight slowing was observed. There was a significant correlation between both hepatic lobe sizes and gestational age (r = 0.94, r = 0.88; p less than 0.01, p less than 0.001).