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Factors controlling normal fetal growth and outline the causes of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and intrauterine growth retardation and fetal growth restriction.
A. Infants that do not grow appropriately in utero and are, therefore, small for gestational age at birth, are growth-retarded or restricted
Generally, the IUGR infants are in the first to tenth percentile of weight for age
The diagnosis, therefore, requires that two things must be known
IUGR is important, for it has a significant perinatal morbidity (50%) and mortality (up six to eight times)
The normal fetus needs three substrate items to grow
It receives glucose (O) across the placenta from the mother by facilitated diffusion
Oxygen (02) by simple diffusion
It also receives amino acids (AA) by active transport
The fetal concentration of AA is higher, the concentration of G is elevated.