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Obstet Gynecol
. 2023 Jan 5.
doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005052. Online ahead of print.
Undetected Fetal Growth Restriction During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic
Kelly B Zafman 1 , Efe Cudjoe, Lisa D Levine, Sindhu K Srinivas, Nadav Schwartz
Affiliations
- PMID: 36649315
- DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005052
Abstract
This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who delivered singleton, small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonates between April and June 2019, before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (pre-COVID-19), and between April and July 2020, during the pandemic (COVID-19 epoch). The primary outcome was the rate of undetected antenatal fetal growth restriction (FGR) in the two periods. A total of 268 patients met inclusion criteria. Patients who delivered small-for-gestational-age neonates during the COVID-19 epoch were significantly more likely to have undetected FGR compared with those who delivered pre-COVID-19 (70.1% vs 58.1%, P=.04). Patients who delivered SGA neonates during the COVID-19 epoch had more telehealth visits but fewer in-person prenatal visits, recorded fundal height measurements, and growth ultrasonograms. As telemedicine continues to be incorporated into prenatal care, these data may lend further support toward self-assessment of fundal height or routine third-trimester growth ultrasonograms to identify fetal growth abnormalities.