Clinical and ultrasonic aspects in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with early pregnancy failure.

Abstract

The value of some central clinical and ultrasonic findings at the time of threatened abortion was examined in 525 patients in the 6th-20th weeks. The outcome of the pregnancy was delivery in 45 per cent of all the cases. A duration of the first bleeding of 3 days or more predicted abortion significantly more often than did a shorter bleeding episode. A positive detection of fetal life signs by ultrasound signified a successful outcome for the pregnancy in 87 per cent of the patients. The anamnestic duration of pregnancy often seemed to deviate from the real weeks, requiring correction by ultrasonic methods. Forty-eight per cent of the cases with various pathologic forms of early pregnancy were evacuated on the basis of ultrasonic findings without waiting for the unavoidable spontaneous abortion. The later course of the pregnancies with a successful outcome revealed an 8 per cent frequency of premature deliveries, signifying careful observation of the patients in this respect. The relatively high frequency of perinatal mortality (3.4 per cent) seemed to be associated with the prematurity.