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Updated: Jul 16, 2025
Fetal Echocardiography and Pulsed-wave Doppler Ultrasound in a Rabbit Model of Intrauterine Growth Restriction
Published on: June 29, 2013
Scaling the EVERREST of severe, early-onset fetal growth restriction
Insights
Predicting outcomes for fetal growth restriction is challenging. New models combining ultrasound data can better identify high-risk pregnancies for improved counseling and clinical trial enrollment.
Area of Science:
- Perinatology
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Genetics
Background:
- Severe, early-onset fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a major cause of preterm birth and adverse perinatal outcomes.
- Current treatments to improve fetal growth or prolong pregnancy are lacking.
- Predicting pregnancy outcomes in FGR is difficult due to diverse phenotypes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop discriminative models for predicting adverse outcomes in FGR.
- To identify pregnancies at high risk for fetal/neonatal death or early delivery.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a discovery-science approach combined with ultrasound parameters.
- Developed predictive models for primary (fetal/neonatal death) and secondary (death or delivery ≤28 weeks) outcomes.
Main Results:
- Identified the most discriminative models for predicting adverse pregnancy outcomes in FGR.
- Findings enable better individualization of patient counseling.
Conclusions:
- The developed models can identify pregnancies with considerable risk, justifying enrollment in interventional trials.
- Improved prediction facilitates personalized patient care and advances clinical trial recruitment for FGR.
Abstract:
Severe, early-onset fetal growth restriction is a leading cause of medically indicated preterm birth and substantially increases the risk for perinatal death or disability. No treatments exist to improve fetal growth or safely prolong pregnancy. Furthermore, wide-ranging phenotypes limit the accurate prediction of pregnancy outcome. In this issue of the JCI, Spencer and colleagues combine a discovery-science approach with ultrasound parameters to identify the most discriminative models for predicting either the primary outcome of fetal or neonatal death, or a secondary outcome of death or delivery at 28 weeks of gestation or earlier. Their findings can better individualize patient counseling but, just as compellingly, provide the capacity to identify those pregnancies that are at such considerable risk as to justify enrollment in paradigm-shifting interventional trials that are in the pipeline.
