RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Anterior fontanelle size among term neonates on the first day of life born at University of Gondar Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 385906
DO 10.1101/385906
A1 Mohammed Oumer
A1 Edengenet Guday
A1 Alemayehu Teklu
A1 Abebe Muche
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/06/385906.abstract
AB Background Anterior fontanelle is the largest, prominent and most important fontanelle, which is used for clinical evaluation. It is mainly characterized by its size and shape variation and is possibly influenced by gender, race and genetics. Understanding the variation of anterior fontanelle is used for recognition of different medical disorders and abnormal skeletal morphogenesis.Objective To determine the mean size of anterior fontanelle among term neonates on the first day of life born at University of Gondar Hospital, Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2018Methods Descriptive cross sectional study design was undertaken in 384 term and apparently healthy neonates, using standard methods. Descriptive analysis, student t-test, one way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient were implemented.Results In this study, the mean size of anterior fontanelle in term neonates was 3.00 ± 0.62 cm (range 1.70 – 5.50 cm). The mean size of anterior fontanelle was 3.10 ± 0.66 cm for males, and 2.88 ± 0.57 cm for females. There was statistically significant difference in anterior fontanelle size in neonates of different genders (p<0.001), mode of delivery (p<0.001) and duration of labour (p=0.006). However, the size of anterior fontanelle was not significantly affected by the birth order, onset of labour and sociodemographic variables of the mother except occupation of the mother (p=0.01). There was a significant positive correlation between the mean size of anterior fontanelle with birth weight (r=0.11; p=0.04) and head circumference (r=0.17; p=0.001).Conclusions At term, male neonates had significantly larger anterior fontanelle than female neonates and anterior fontanelle size has a direct relationship with birth weight and head circumference.