Neonatal anthropometry: its value in the assessment of nutritional status and neonatal blood glucose homeostasis

The use and application of neonatal anthropometry in newborns with different body measurements and nutritional evaluation status is reviewed. The neonatal blood glucose level has been used as a model in testing the predictive value of various indices of body size for the capacity of neonatal blood glucose homeostasis. For example, combining weight and length deficit from the expected means for gestational age and relative body measurements such as weight for length and ponderal index not only convey information about the type and magnitude of growth impairment, but are also good predictors of the risk of hypoglycaemia within the different anthropometric groups of growth retarded infants. Efforts have been made to delineate the diagnostic criteria by somatic measurements for identification of the different degrees and types of intrauterine growth deviation. The anthropometric approach to the heterogeneity of the intrauterine growth pattern seems to be a simple and very useful tool in somatic classification and evaluation of the newborn infant. In addition to the assessment of body proportions and nutritional status, the anthropometric approach can be of great help in exploring the relationship of body size and the physiological adaptation to the extrauterine environment.