Fetal age assessment based on 2nd trimester ultrasound in Africa and the effect of ethnicity.docVIP

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth BioMedCentral Research article Open Access Fetal age assessment based on 2nd trimester ultrasound in Africa and the effect of ethnicity Daniel Salpou1,2, Torvid Kiserud3,4, Svein Rasmussen3,4,5 and Synn?ve Lian Johnsen*3 Address: 1Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, Norway, 2Ngoundere Protestant Hospital, Ngoundere, Cameroon, 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway, 4Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Norway and 5Medical Birth Registry of Norway, Locus of Registry Based Epidemiology, University of Bergen and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway Email: Daniel Salpou - danielsalpou@yahoo.fr; Torvid Kiserud - torvid.kiserud@kk.uib.no; Svein Rasmussen - svein.rasmussen@mfr.uib.no; Synn?ve Lian Johnsen* - synnove.johnsen@helse-bergen.no * Corresponding author Published: 30 October 2008 Received: 3 October 2007 Accepted: 30 October 2008 BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2008, 8:48 doi:10.1186/1471-2393-8-48 This article is available from: /1471-2393/8/48 ? 2008 Salpou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The African population is composed of a variety of ethnic groups, which differ considerably from each other. Some studies suggest that ethnic variation may influence dating. The aim of the present study was to establish reference values for fetal age assessment in Cameroon using two different ethnic groups (Fulani and Kirdi). Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study of 200 healthy pregnant women from Cameroon. The participants had regular menstrual periods and singleton uncomplicated pregnancies, and were recruited