Can Fetal Limb Soft Tissue Measurements in the Third Trimester Predict Neonatal Adiposity?

Abstract

Soft tissue measurements of the fetal thigh at 28 weeks correlated better with neonatal percent body fat than currently used sonographic measurements. After validation in a larger cohort, our models may be useful for prenatal intervention strategies aimed at the prevention of excess fetal fat accretion and, potentially, optimization of long-term metabolic health.

Foetal fractional thigh volume: an early 3D ultrasound marker of neonatal adiposity

“…Later, O'Connor et al did not find any significant correlation between TVol measured at 28, 33 and 37 weeks of gestation and neonatal %BF, which corresponds with our findings (22). The most recently published study by Moore et al found no association at 36 weeks, but did find a strong positive association between TVol measured at 28 weeks of gestation and neonatal %BF (9). Despite their sample size of only 32 mother-child pairs, they estimated an explained variance of almost 70% (effect size not reported).…”

“…A promising three‐dimensional ultrasound (3D US) marker is fractional thigh volume (TVol) . In the third trimester of pregnancy, this soft tissue marker is highly associated with neonatal percentage fat mass . To the best of our knowledge, the usefulness of earlier TVol measurement or TVol measured serially has not yet been studied.…”

Postprandial Triglycerides Predict Newborn Fat More Strongly than Glucose in Women with Obesity in Early Pregnancy

“…Limitations include that this was primarily a white cohort, and findings may be different in other ethnicities. Furthermore, risk factors for preeclampsia or preterm delivery were excluded because they could confound NB%fat measures given that fetal fat accretion continues at ∼0.1% per day until 40 weeks of gestation . Except for higher IR and TGs, this cohort with OB was relatively healthy, as demonstrated by the low glucoses.…”

Advances in assessing body composition during pregnancy

“…Imaging technology can potentially overcome this shortcoming. Sonography or ultrasound is routinely used to obtain images of the fetus throughout gestation to assess growth and normal development and has been extended to derive measures of fetal skinfold thickness in utero [68–73]. Numerous studies are now also using ultrasound to derive measures of maternal skinfold thickness suggesting that it overcomes many of the technical issues inherent with skinfold calipers but validation studies are lacking [74, 75].…”