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Longitudinal Changes of Subpubic Arch Angle throughout Pregnancy
Federica Martelli1, Aly Youssef2, Maria Vittoria Capogna3
1Academic Department of Biomedicine and Prevention and Clinical Department of Surgery, Section of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy, martelli.federica@gmail.com.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to assess whether the subpubic arch angle (SPA) changes throughout pregnancy.
Materials And Methods:
We recruited a group of nulliparous women in the first trimester of pregnancy. Each woman was assessed 3 times throughout pregnancy, once per each trimester, by measuring SPA using a recently described highly reproducible three-dimensional transperineal ultrasound (linear reconstruction with contrast enhancement technique; OmniView-volume contrast imaging). Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to study SPA changes during pregnancy.
Results:
Overall, 97 women were included in the final analysis. SPA increased progressively and significantly (F = 27.824, p < 0.001) from the first to the second trimester (121.8 ± 8.7 vs. 123.5 ± 8.4°, p = 0.01) and from the second to the third trimester (123.5 ± 8.4 vs. 125.3 ± 8.1°, p = 0.01).
Conclusion:
SPA width increases progressively but slightly during pregnancy. Although this finding is interesting, the extremely small difference detected is unlikely to be clinically significant.
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