Colour Doppler imaging in the evaluation of complicated first trimester Pregnancies.

Sachin Kumar Singh; Geeta Rani; Anand kr Murarka

Volume : VI, Issue : VII, July - 2016

Colour Doppler imaging in the evaluation of complicated first trimester Pregnancies.

Sachin Kumar Singh, Geeta Rani, Anand Kr Murarka

Abstract :

 Objectives: To evaluate the role of colour Doppler imaging in detecting complications of pregnancy in the first trimester. Materials and Methods: Forty six women with clinically suspected complications in the first trimester of pregnancy were evaluated by gray scale imaging followed by color Doppler imaging. The results were correlated with findings at evacuation/ surgery and/ or histopathological evaluation. Result: The addition of color Doppler imaging to gray scale imaging improved the sensitivity for the diagnosis of viable pregnancy, non–viable pregnancy and ectopic pregnancy from 90%, 93.33% and 80% to almost 100%. The presence of perigestational venous lakes and the absence of functional luteal flow were found to predict an abortion in a nonviable gestation . Color Doppler imaging could reliably distinguish an early intrauterine pregnancy from ectopic pregnancy by the presence of low resistance peritrophoblastic flow in the former. In case of incomplete abortion, the addition of color Doppler imaging confirmed the presence of retained gestational tissue. The diagnostic sensitivity for an adnexal mass in ectopic pregnancy was also improved by the addition of colour Doppler imaging to gray scale imaging. Conclusion: Colour Doppler imaging serves as a useful adjunct to gray scale imaging by distinguishing a viable from a non –viable pregnancy with greater confidence. Hence, we recommend that colour Doppler sonography should always be employed as an adjunct to gray scale imaging.