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Association between unexplained thickened nuchal translucency and adverse pregnancy outcomes

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To determine the association between unexplained increased nuchal translucency (INT) and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Patients and methods

The prospective database of our fetal down screening project was accessed to retrieve the records with NT measurement and complete follow-up. Pregnancies with pre-existing medical diseases, fetal chromosomal or structural abnormalities were excluded. The selected pregnancies were classified into the INT groups (> 95th percentile), the normal (< 95th percentile) group.

Results

Of 6026 available for analysis (INT:277; and normal: 5749), the abortion rate was significantly higher in the INT group, 18/277 (6.5%) versus 55/5749 (1.0%); p < 0.001. After excluding 73 cases ending-up with abortion, a total of 5953 women were analyzed for final pregnancy outcomes, including 260 (4.4%), and 5693 (95.6%) in the study group (INT), and the control group (normal NT), respectively. The rates of pre-eclampsia (7.3 vs. 4.1%; p: 0.018), preterm birth (12.7 vs. 8.4%; p: 0.023), fetal growth restriction (11.5 vs. 7.6%; p: 0.032), and low birth weight (16.5 vs. 10.0%; p: 0.002) were slightly, but significantly higher in the study group.

Conclusions

INT in the first trimester is associated with significantly increased risk of abortion, fetal growth restriction, preterm birth, low birth weight and pre-eclampsia.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Faculty of Medicine Research Fund, Chiang Mai University, Thailand for financial support.

Funding

This study was funded by Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai Research Fund (Grant 50-2558).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Santee Tiyatha, Sirinart Sirilert, Ratanaporn Sekararithi & Theera Tongsong

Authors
  1. Santee Tiyatha
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  2. Sirinart Sirilert
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  3. Ratanaporn Sekararithi
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  4. Theera Tongsong
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Contributions

ST Conceptualization, Protocol development, Data collection, Manuscript drafting. SS Protocol development, Data collection. RS Protocol development, Data collection. TT Supervision, Conceptualization, Data analysis, Manuscript editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theera Tongsong.

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Conflict of interest

All of the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted with ethical approval of the institute review boards (Ethics Committee 4; Research ID 4548/Study Code: OBG-2560-04548).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Tiyatha, S., Sirilert, S., Sekararithi, R. et al. Association between unexplained thickened nuchal translucency and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Arch Gynecol Obstet 298, 97–101 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4790-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4790-9

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