title: Estimation of gestational age of Nigerian newborn infants by measurement of thoracic spine length on chest radiographs.
abstract: Thoracic spine length was measured on chest radiographs of forty-nine Nigerian neonates of known gestational age. There is a strong correlation between gestational age and thoracic spine length (r = 0.93). The small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants had thoracic spine lengths below two standard deviations (s.d.) of the mean for the appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. This method is useful for identifying SGA infants on chest radiographs particularly when they are too ill to be subjected to the usual physical and neurological assessment of gestational age.
mesh_terms: D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age; D009549:Nigeria; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*