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Updated: Sep 1, 2025

High Frequency Ultrasound for the Analysis of Fetal and Placental Development In Vivo
Published on: November 8, 2018
Placenta accreta spectrum ultrasound stage and fetal growth
Helena C Bartels1, Jennifer M Walsh1,2, Clare O'Connor1
1National Maternity Hospital, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Objective:
to evaluate fetal growth in pregnancies complicated by placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) and to compare fetal growth between cases stratified by ultrasound stage of PAS.
Methods:
This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of women diagnosed with PAS between January 2018 and December 2021. We grouped participants into cases by ultrasound stage (PAS stage 1-3) and controls (PAS0). Fetal growth centiles at three timepoints with median gestational ages of 21 ± 1 weeks (interquartile range [IQR], 20 ± 1-22 ± 0 weeks), 28 ± 0 weeks (IQR, 27 ± 0-28 ± 5 weeks), and 33 ± 0 weeks (IQR, 32 ± 1-34 ± 0 weeks) and birth weight centiles were compared between cases and controls and between those with PAS stratified by ultrasound stage.
Results:
A total of 53 women met inclusion criteria, with a mean age of 37 years (standard deviation, ±4.0 years) and body mass index of 27 kg/m2 (standard deviation, ±5.8 kg/m2 ). Median (IQR) fetal weight centiles were around the 50th centile at each timepoint, with no difference between groups. The incidence of small for gestational age (birth weight ≤ 10th percentile) and large for gestational age (birth weight ≥ 90th percentile) was 11.3% (n = 6) and 15.1% (n = 8), respectively, with no differences by ultrasound stage. The median birth weight centile was 64 (IQR, 26-85), with no differences between cases and controls or by ultrasound stage.
Conclusions:
In our cohort, a diagnosis of PAS was not associated with fetal growth restriction.
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