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Can transabdominal ultrasound identify women at high risk for short cervical length?
Alexander M Friedman1, Nadav Schwartz, Jack Ludmir
1Maternal and Child Health Research Program, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. alexander.friedman@gmail.com
Objective:
To determine whether transabdominal cervical length screening could identify women at high risk for having a short cervix on transvaginal ultrasound.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting:
Tertiary referral center.
Population:
A total of 703 patients with a singleton pregnancy at 18 to 23(+6) weeks of gestation who underwent transabdominal and transvaginal cervical length assessment during anatomy ultrasound at a single institution between January 2007 and October 2011.
Methods:
Electronic medical records were reviewed to identify women who met the study criteria.
Main Outcome Measures:
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.
Results:
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.
Conclusions:
Screening of transabdominal cervical length may represent a useful strategy for detecting women with short cervix on transvaginal ultrasound.
