Morphometry of Fetal Liver From Human Fetuses Between 12-36 Weeks Gestational Age

Background of the study To assess the prenatal development of the human liver between 12-36 weeks of gestational age by measuring morphometric parameters using conventional autopsy and to evaluate the morphometric parameters of the human fetus and its liver and their correlation to predict the gestation age. Materials & methods The present study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India, on 33 normal fetuses of gestational age 12-36 weeks collected from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the same institute. which were classified into five groups: A (12-16 weeks), B (17-21 weeks), C (22-26 weeks), D (27-31 weeks), and E (32-36 weeks). The parameters measured were liver weight, liver volume, transverse diameter, sagittal diameter, vertical length, length, and width of all four lobes of the liver, i.e., right, left, caudate and quadrate lobe. Also, general morphometric parameters of the fetuses were measured like fetal body weight, crown-rump length, crown-heel length, biparietal diameter, head circumference, chest circumference, abdominal circumference, hand length, foot length, inner inter-canthal distance, outer inter-canthal distance. The obtained data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation was assessed. Results There was a statistically significant increase amongst all the fetal general parameters and parameters of liver except bi-parietal diameter, p-value <0.001. The bi-parietal diameter was weakly statistically significant correlated with all other parameters except with chest circumference, crown-heel length, length and width of caudate lobe, and the width of the quadrate lobe and left lobe where it was statistically non-significant. Conclusion Bi-parietal diameter is a statistically non-significant parameter to calculate gestation age. The knowledge of morphological features and normal limits of dimensions of the liver with respect to gestational age is a reliable reference to help to prevent misdiagnosis of various pathological conditions of the liver like cirrhosis, hepatomegaly, fetal anemia, intrauterine growth retardation, congenital anomalies like Down's Syndrome, etc.