Can transabdominal ultrasound identify women at high risk for short cervical length?. (17th April 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Friedman, Alexander M.; Schwartz, Nadav; Ludmir, Jack; Parry, Samuel; Bastek, Jamie A.; Sehdev, Harish M.
• Is Part Of: Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica. Volume 92:Number 6(2013)
• Page Start: 637
• Page End: 641
• Publication Date: 2013-04-17
• Subjects: Gynecology -- Periodicals; Pregnancy -- Periodicals; Obstetrics -- Periodicals; 618.05
• DOI: 10.1111/aogs.12111
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-6349

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en" id="aogs12111-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Objective</title> <p>To determine whether transabdominal cervical length screening could identify women at high risk for having a short cervix on transvaginal ultrasound.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Design</title> <p>Retrospective cohort study.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Setting</title> <p>Tertiary referral center.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Population</title> <p>A total of 703 patients with a singleton pregnancy at 18 to 23<sup>+6</sup> weeks of gestation who underwent transabdominal and transvaginal cervical length assessment during anatomy ultrasound at a single institution between January 2007 and October 2011.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>Electronic medical records were reviewed to identify women who met the study criteria.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0006" sec-type="section"> <title>Main outcome measures</title> <p>The primary outcome was the number of women with a short transabdominal cervical length (defined as ≤30 mm) who needed to undergo transvaginal ultrasound to detect one woman with a short transvaginal cervical length of ≤20 mm.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0007" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>In all, 703 patients were included in the primary analysis; 3.42 women with transabdominal cervical length ≤30 mm needed to undergo transvaginal ultrasound to detect one woman with transvaginal ultrasound cervical length ≤20 mm. Of women with short transvaginal cervical length ≤20 mm, 89.8% had a transabdominal measurement ≤30 mm and 96.7% had a transabdominal measurement ≤33 mm.</p> </sec> <sec id="aogs12111-sec-0008" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>Screening of transabdominal cervical length may represent a useful strategy for detecting women with short cervix on transvaginal ultrasound.</p> </sec> </abstract>