Inter-examiner reliability in fundal height measurement.

ABSTRACT

The inter-examiner reliability of fundal height measurements is essential in settings where patients are not examined by the same clinician at each prenatal visit. This preliminary study evaluated the inter-examiner reliability of two fundal height measurement techniques tape measure and calliper. Four examiners obtained both measurements from 22 subjects who were between 25 and 30 weeks of gestation. The cumulative percentage of differences of less than or equal to 1.0, less than or equal to 2.0, and less than or equal to 3.0 cm for the four examiners was 13.6%, 13.6%, and 54.5% for tape measurements and 9.1%, 45.5% and 59.1% for the calliper measurements, respectively. The mean range of differences between the four examiners for the tape measure and calliper techniques were 3.68 and 3.31 cm, respectively. Clinicians are advised to be cautious in their interpretation of fundal height measurements in situations where the measurements are obtained by multiple examiners.