Automated Gestational Age Estimation for Monitoring Fetal Growth

Gestation is defined as a period of time between conception and birth. Estimation of gestational age is necessary in order to predict the early date of delivery and monitor the growth of fetus throughout the three trimester of pregnancy. Assessment of gestational age is based on measurement of various fetal biometric parameters like gestational sac, bi-parietal diameter, femur length, abdominal circumference, head circumference during the gestation period. In medical image processing, ultrasound technique plays an important role for imaging organs for an obstetrician and gynecologist. Monitoring of these parameters is done with human interaction. These methods are responsible for multiple subjective decisions which increase the inter-observer error. The main objective of this work is to measure fetal biometric parameter for accurate estimation of gestational age. An automated computer based algorithm has been used to apply morphological operation in order to recognize the desired parameter contour in the ultrasound image, refine its shape and compensate for distinct irregularities, then correctly measure its length, attaining optimum accuracy and reproducibility of measurements. Automation algorithm utilizes morphological operation, Hough transform and tracing methods. It has been found that, the proposed scheme, is able to estimate the gestational age of the fetus with a prediction accuracy of ±2 days.