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Macrosomatia and ultrasonography: what is the problem?
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City 73190.
It has been claimed that sonographic techniques offer no advantages over palpation of the maternal abdomen for detection of macrosomatia. We studied a group of 498 pregnant patients, 36 (7.2%) of whom gave birth to infants having macrosomatia. A sensitivity of 67%, specificity of 97%, and positive predictive value of 67% was obtained using our method without significant systematic error. Three problems that could reduce the value of ultrasonography in the detection of macrosomatia were detected: (1) use of equations with systematic errors; (2) human bias; and (3) use of ultrasonography machines/transducers with insufficient capacity.
It has been claimed that sonographic techniques offer no advantages over palpation of the maternal abdomen for detection of macrosomatia. We studied a group of 498 pregnant patients, 36 (7.2%) of whom gave birth to infants having macrosomatia. A sensitivity of 67%, specificity of 97%, and positive predictive value of 67% was obtained using our method without significant systematic error. Three problems that could reduce the value of ultrasonography in the detection of macrosomatia were detected: (1) use of equations with systematic errors; (2) human bias; and (3) use of ultrasonography machines/transducers with insufficient capacity.