Elsevier

Placenta

Volume 22, Issues 8–9, September 2001, Pages 729-734
Placenta

Regular Articles
Correlation of First Trimester Placental Volume and Second Trimester Uterine Artery Doppler Flow

https://doi.org/10.1053/plac.2001.0721Get rights and content

Abstract

Uterine artery Doppler examination can identify impaired trophoblast invasion in the second trimester of pregnancy. High resistance and an early diastolic ‘notch’ show insufficient physiological conversion of the spiral arteries. Uterine artery Doppler is routinely performed between 22–24 weeks which is relatively late for treatment. In this study we wanted to find out whether women with increased uterine blood flow resistance at 22 weeks already have reduced placental volumes in the first trimester measured with 3D sonography.

A total of 1060 women with singleton pregnancies had three dimensional (3D) volume measurements of their placentae between 11–13 weeks and uterine Doppler scans between 21–22 weeks. Stepwise logistic and linear regression analyses were used to show a correlation between placental volume (PV) and a CRL dependent placental quotient (PQ) with uterine perfusion parameters.

Uterine perfusion at 21–22 weeks depends significantly on PV or PQ at 11–13 weeks (P< 0.0001 for both) and smoking behaviour (P=0.006). The occurrence of a notch also depends significantly on PV and PQ (P< 0.0001 for both) and also on gravidity (P< 0.0001) and age (P=0.0007) as well as on smoking behaviour (P=0.0094). PV and PQ did not show any dependency on age, gravidity, BMI or smoking habits. Placentae of women with high resistance uterine perfusion in the second trimester are already remarkably small in the first trimester. Placental volumetry is probably an efficient method for early and simple identification of impaired trophoblast invasion.

References (15)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (53)

View all citing articles on Scopus
f1

To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Ob/Gyn Department, Donauspital am SMZ-Ost Langobardenstrasse 122, A- 1220 Vienna, Austria. Fax: 43-1-28802/3880; E-mail:[email protected]

View full text