Abstract
Nulliparas differ from multiparas by giving birth to smaller babies and being at higher risk of developing pre-eclampsia. We tested the hypothesis that nulliparas and multiparas differ in their first-trimester development of placental vascularisation and volume. We measured placental flow index (FI), vascularisation index (VI) and placental volume (PV) by 3D power Doppler and VOCAL at 2 week intervals between 8 and 12 weeks pregnancy in 34 apparently healthy nulliparous and 16 multiparous, with normal pregnancy outcome. FI increased between 8 and 10 weeks in both nulliparous (p = 0.006) and multiparous women (p = 0.009) see figure 1. Between 10 and 12 weeks, the FI continued to increase significantly in nulliparas (p = 0.017) together with VI (p = 0.002), but not in multiparas. At 12 weeks, FI was indistinguishable between both groups. FI and VI varied markedly at all measurement points. The altered placental blood flow was not accompanied by a difference in placental volume growth. The placental vascularisation of multiparous women differs from nulliparous women. Multiparous women have an earlier development of first-trimester placental flow, without difference in the concomitant growth in placental volume. Supporting information can be found in the online version of this abstract Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Published Version
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