الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Antenatal recognition of abnonnal fetal growth is of vital importance to the obtetrician as subsequent monitoring of fetal well-being and appropriately timed delivery may prevent perinatal death or handicap. Also inadequate fetal growth monitoring has emerged as the most important avoidable factor in prevention of fetal death, stillbirths and disability due to intrauterine growth retardation. Intrauterine growth retardation accounts for a significant part of perinatal mortality and morbidity, some times with life long sequelae .It is important to mention that, no less than two thirds of mentally retarded and cerebral palsy infants are derived frOm fetuses who are intrauterine growth retarded. There is no doubt that the intrauterine growth retarded infants are at grave risk of perinatal mortality, neonatal morbidity and long term disability. Unfortunately, diagnosis of these infants after delivery does little to reduce the high perinatal mortality and morbidity associated with this entity . Moreover, even those ”lucky” infants managed in neonatal intensive care units, the increasing survival carries the possibility that a greater proportion of children will have subsequent disability that places increased demands on societal resoutces . So , the diagnosis must be made as early as possible in pregnancy. Early antenatal diagnosis is important if morbidity and mortality are to be minimized. An early diagnosis could improve the prognosis for those babies. There fore, recognition of this group of babies is of paramount importance and their early detection seems to be one of the most pertinent problems in perinatal medicine today. The antenatal diagnosis of intrauterine growth retardation is problematic since the majority of small-for-date infants are oom to mothers with no risk factors. Moreover, the maternal symptoms of ill health are absent during pregnancy and there are no any overt maternal signs to prompt the clinician to suspect the condition. So, the accurate identification of the growth retarded fetus remains a problem inspite of a wide range of clinical, biochemical and ultrasonographic techniques now available. Clinical evaluation of fetal growth is difficult and often inaccurate.