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Intrauterine growth restriction or fetal growth restriction represents a fetal incapacity of achieving its entire growth potential in intrauterine life, as a result of maternal, fetal and/or placental causes, from hypertension, autoimmune diseases, drug consumption, hereditary thrombophilia to genetic syndromes, intrauterine infections, umbilical cord anomalies or placental insufficiency. The ultrasonographic evaluation of the fetus with intrauterine growth restriction identifies an estimated fetal weight or a fetal abdominal circumference below the 10 th percentile for gestational age; a severe fetal growth restriction is defined as an estimated fetal weight below the 3rd percentile. The Delphi consensus managed to classify fetal growth restriction as early, being diagnosed under 32 weeks of gestation, respectively late, after 32 weeks of gestation. Up to 10% of pregnancies are complicated by fetal growth restriction, which are then considered high-risk pregnancies for the morbidity and mortality risk carried for the fetus, requiring an accurate diagnosis of the cause, intensifying the fetal monitoring and timing the birth, in order to deliver the fetus in safe conditions. This paper proposes an algorithm for an initial evaluation of fetal growth restriction, with the aim of simplifying the medical approach when encountering a fetus with intrauterine growth restriction, in order to improve morbidity and mortality rates among pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transvaginal ultrasound and serum concentration of human chorionic gonadotropin are the main methods of prognostic evaluation of early pregnancies. Although these pregnancy investigation methods have proven their benefits, the interpretation is fundamental for a correct diagnosis, in order to avoid interventions that may affect pregnancies that would normally have had a physiologic course, as well as to apply an appropriate management in the case of nonviable pregnancies. Recent studies have shown the need to adopt rigorous criteria that minimize false positive results and thus decrease the frequency of diagnostic errors. Over time, a series of ultrasound features have been described which have proven effective in predicting nonviable pregnancies in the first trimester (cranio-caudal length in relation to the presence or absence of cardiac activity, yolk sac diameter, gestational sac diameter in relation to presence or absence of embryo with cardiac activity, embryonic heart rate, subchorionic hematoma etc.). In the context of the new prospects for the development of artificial intelligence softwares, the present work focuses on the description of the precise ultrasonographic aspects aboded by the latest studies that propose certain cut-off values dependent on the gestational age of the ultrasound parameters in the first trimester, increasing the sensitivity and the specificity of ultrasound in the diagnosis of nonviable early pregnancies, thus aiming to improve the reproductive prognosis of couples with recurrent abortions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]