Neonatal morbidity of S.G.A. infants in relation to their nutritional status at birth.

46 consecutively born term infants with a birthweight less than or equal to 2.3 percentile for gestational age were divided into two groups according to their nutritional status at birth quantified by the ponderal index (100 x weight/lenght). Though all infants had a ponderal index below the 50th percentile, those with a ponderal index below the 3rd percentile (about half of the study group) were more frequently affected by asphyxia, hypoglycaemia, hypothermia, and hyperviscosity than their more proportionally grown counterparts. On this account the identification of disproportionally grown small-for-gestational age infants by using the ponderal index as a yardstick of the nutritional status at birth, is necessary because they constitute a high-risk group among small-for-gestational age infants.