Sonographic detection of smoking-related decreased fetal growth.

The influence of the effect of maternal smoking on various parameters of fetal growth was tested on two different groups of patients. One was studied with a cross-sectional design and the other one with a longitudinal approach. The fetal parameters measured, reflected head growth (biparietal and occipito-frontal diameters), somatic growth (femur, humerus, tibia, ulna, arm perimeter, thigh perimeter), and visceral growth (abdominal perimeter, cardiac diameters and volume, kidney diameters and volume). The results derived from the longitudinal study demonstrated that head, somatic, and visceral parameters were all affected, when compared with normal curve, while with the cross-sectional study it was not possible to demonstrate impairment of growth. It is concluded that although there is an effect on fetal growth, the detection of such an effect requires sophisticated statistical techniques and study design. This corroborates various studies that had dealt only with the biparietal diameter (BPD) growth.