Model by Chennai, Pune team predicts birth weight from routine scans Premium

Researchers develop a model predicting newborn birth weight using routine scans, crucial for maternal and foetal health.

Researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) and Seethapathy Clinic and Hospital, both in Chennai, and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, have developed a model that can predict a newborn’s birth weight using routine scans during pregnancy.

Accurate information about birth weight is crucial for maternal and foetal health. Low weight can cause complications like preterm birth while heavier babies are harder to deliver safely. Knowing foetal birth weight can help healthcare providers identify possible risks and plan interventions.

There is no method to determine foetal weight during a pregnancy, so doctors assess a baby’s growth by measuring parameters like head and abdominal circumference during routine ultrasounds. Some mathematical formulae allow birth weight predictions based on these measurements, but they require late-term ultrasounds, within a week before delivery.

“Often within the public sector, this last scan close to the delivery does not happen,” said Uma Ram, a gynaecologist at Seethapathy Clinic and Hospital, Chennai. When computational biologists Leelavati Narlikar from IISER and Rahul Siddharthan from IMSc approached Ram with a grant for maternal and child health-related work, they decided to pursue this problem.

Their method was reported in the journal European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology: X on October 3. It uses a mathematical model to calculate foetal growth parameters, allowing doctors to estimate birth weight without late-term ultrasounds.

“This is a very interesting and important study,” said Tavpritesh Sethi, a computational biologist attheIndraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi; he wasn’t associated with the study. “If the model is validated across bigger settings, it essentially reduces the need for carrying out a lot of ultrasounds.”

The team’s investigation of a mathematical model for growth led them to the Gompertz formula. First described in the 19th century by English mathematician Benjamin Gompertz, the equation has been used to model cell population and tumour growth in biology research. Researchers have also used it to model foetal growth volume in collective data but not to measure individual birth weight.