Abstract
Identification of poor fetal growth is an important objective of antenatal care. We evaluated the validity of the Wennergren score to predict small for gestational age and/or underweight for length infants (low ponderal index). To 405 randomly chosen pregnant women from our university hospital population, this numerical scoring system was applied at 28 and 34 weeks of gestation. Birthweights below the 2.3rd and 10th centile and ponderal indexes below the 3rd and 10th centile were used as outcome standards. The sensitivity of predicting SGA infants ranged from 28.4% for infants below the 10th birthweight centile at 28 weeks, to 66.7% for infants below the 2.3rd centile at 34 weeks. Figures for low ponderal indices ranged from 25.0% to 50.0%.
In contrast to the promising performance of the Wennergren score as described in the Scandinavian literature, this score was not useful as a screening test for SGA or underweight for length infants in a Dutch hospital population.