The secular growth acceleration: does it appear during fetal life?
To test if secular growth acceleration occurs during fetal life. ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-test have been used for the biometric characteristics comparison of nowadays fetal population with those three decades ago and to test the hypothesis about the existence of secular growth acceleration during fetal life. For this purpose, we first calculated mean values of particular biometric parameters for the whole pregnancy. During the period 2002-2009 biparietal diameter, fetal length and abdominal circumference measurements in singleton uncomplicated pregnancies between 22 and 41 gestational weeks were obtained. Gestational age was estimated according to Naegele's rule and confirmed with an early ultrasound examination. Pregnancies with fetal cromosomopathies and malformations were excluded as well as those resulting in perinatal death. There were no statistically significant differences of the examined fetal biometric parameters measured by ultrasound between contemporary fetal population and those from 35 years ago.
Our investigation did not undoubtedly prove that significant changes of fetal biometric parameters occurred in the last three decades. It is possible that secular growth acceleration does not exist in prenatal period but also the observed time period could have been short for this phenomenon to manifest.