title: Association of isolated short fetal femur with intrauterine growth restriction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the outcomes of fetuses referred because of short femur length.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective study of all singleton pregnancies referred to a tertiary care referral hospital with a femur length below the 5(th) percentile. All ultrasound scan reports, including Doppler, fetal karyotyping, pregnancy outcome and neonatal data were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 112 patients, 87 (78%) had an isolated short femur and 25 (22%) had a non-isolated short femur. The non-isolated cases consisted of chromosomal disorders (n = 6), skeletal abnormalities (n = 6), multiple abnormalities (n = 12) and 1 genetic disorder. In the isolated group 37 cases (43%) were intrauterine growth restricted (positive likelihood ratio 1.20, negative likelihood ratio 0.45). In 33 cases the short femur was unexplained and 17 referrals were considered false-positive. The growth restricted group had significant more abnormal Doppler measurements (p = 0.01), caesarean deliveries (p = 0.043) and admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An isolated short femur is associated with intrauterine growth restriction and adverse pregnancy outcome.
authors: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Vermeer
authors: M N
authors: MN
authors: Bekker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal