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Variations of placental migration in patients with early third trimester malposition

Abstract

Aim

This study aimed to investigate the impact of placental migration on the definitive prepartum diagnosis of patients with placenta previa (PP) and low-lying placenta (LLP) after late preterm.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of singleton pregnancies with PP and LLP diagnosed at 30–33 weeks of gestation. We assessed the rate of changes in transvaginal ultrasonographic measurements of placental position during the period from 34 to 38 weeks of gestation.

Results

A total of 127 cases (82 of PP, 45 of LLP) were included. The PP group comprised 34 cases with complete PP and 48 with partial and marginal PP. The diagnosis of complete PP was changed to partial or marginal PP in two (5.9%) cases. Concerning cases with partial and marginal PP, 14 (29.2%) were eventually revised to LLP and four (8.3%) ultimately normalized. Among the patients with LLP, placental position was normalized in 23 (51.1%). Overall, a revision in diagnosis after late preterm was required in 48 cases (37.8%). Among the 93 patients who did not have complete PP, 46 (49.5%) needed revisions of their placental diagnosis.

Conclusions

Repeated evaluations of placental position by ultrasonography after late preterm could be of significant value in selecting the most appropriate mode of delivery.

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Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazufumi Haino.

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Ethical statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Review Board of Osaka Medical Center and Research Institute for Maternal and Child Health.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this study.

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Haino, K., Ishii, K., Kanda, M. et al. Variations of placental migration in patients with early third trimester malposition. J Med Ultrasonics 45, 99–102 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0791-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0791-8

Keywords

  • Placenta previa
  • Low-lying placenta
  • Migration
  • Late preterm
  • Transvaginal ultrasonography