Underestimation of gestational age by conventional crown-rump length dating curves

Abstract

Inaccuracies in gestational age assignment based on published crown-rump length data were noted in patients with known ovulation dates. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that crown-rump length data derived from pregnancies with known ovulation dates differ from those of menstrually timed pregnancies. Seventy-two previously infertile women with known dates of ovulation had crown-rump length measurements from 35-79 days postovulation. We transformed the data to menstrual age (gestational age) by adding 14 days to the data of ovulation and compared our crown-rump length values with those of two previous reports. At corresponding crown-rump length values, the gestational ages from our data differed from those in the previous studies. We suggest using crown-rump length dating curves based on ovulation-timed pregnancies because crown-rump length data derived from menstrually dated pregnancies underestimate true gestational age.