Doppler Ultrasound Assessment in Women with Threatened Abortion

Abstract

Objective: To determine which variables obtained by Doppler ultrasound are associated with the outcome of patients with threatened abortion. Study design: We carried out a cross-sectional study. The patient population included patients with pregnancy less than 20 weeks, who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of threatened abortion. Results: We followed the outcome of 223 patients and found 32 patients (14.3%) who aborted and 191 patients (85.7%) who did not abort. The fetal heart rate for the group who aborted was significantly lower than the group who did not abort (143 ± 2.9 vs. 154 ± 3.6 beats per minute, respectively), p = 0.002; the resistance index of uterine artery was higher (0.79 ± 0.07 vs. 0.76 ± 0.09, respectively), p = 0.018; and the resistance index of trophoblastic flow was higher (0.55 ± 0.04 vs. 0.50 ± 0.06, respectively), p = 0.041. The resistance index of umbilical artery and corpus luteum were not statistically different. Conclusion: Alterations of fetal heart rate, resistance index of uterine artery and trophoblastic flow are associated with adverse outcome in women with threatened abortion.