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Objectives: To correlate fetal abdominal subcutaneous and skin thickness with birthweight and delivery indices. Methods: 65 patients were recruited during labor. The fetal abdominal subcutaneous and skin thickness (FASST) was assessed by measuring the distance from outer skin edge to rib margin at the level of the abdominal circumference. FASST was compared to birth weight, maternal preand post-delivery weight, maternal weight change, route of delivery, gender, maternal age, and gestational age. Results: Gestational age at recruitment was 39.61 ± 1.24 weeks (mean ± standard deviation). The interval from FASST measurement to delivery ranged from 1 to 34 hours. FASST measurements correlated strongly with birth weight (r = 0.643, P < .001). There were weak correlations with gestational age (r = 0.287, P = 0.021), maternal weight at delivery (r = 0.270, P = 0.032), and maternal weight gain during pregnancy (r = 0.345, P = 0.007). There was no difference in cesarean section resulting from arrest of labor. Macrosomic fetuses had thicker FASST (55.03 ± 9.05 mm) compared to others (43.45 ± 7.33 mm) (P = 0.01). Females had thicker FASST (45.92 ± 7.49 mm) compared to males (42.12 ± 7.61 mm) (P = 0.047). Conclusions: FASST measurements positively correlate with birthweight, maternal weight & female gender. These preliminary findings demonstrate FASST as a potentially promising tool for assessing intrapartum fetal weight.

Objective: To asses the learning curve for the observed to expected fetal lung area to head circumference ratio (O/E LHR) calculation in fetuses with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Methods: Three trainees with the theoretic knowledge, but without prior experience in the O/E LHR measurement were selected. Each trainee and one experienced explorer measured the O/E LHR in the contralateral lung to the side of the hernia by firstly, manual tracing of the lung borders and secondly, by multiplication of the longest diameters in a cohort of 95 consecutive CDH fetuses. The average difference between the three trainees and the expert in the O/E LHR measurement was calculated. A difference below 10% was considered as accurate measurement. The average learning curve was delineated using the cumulative sum analysis (CUSUM). Results: The CUSUM plots demonstrate that the learning curve was surmounted by 77 and 71 cases performed for the area obtained by the manual tracing and multiplication of the longest diameter methods, respectively. Conclusion: The minimum number of scans required for an inexperienced sonographer to become competent in examining the O/E LHR is on average 70.