The incidence and distribution of anomalies found in the pregnant women applied to Kayseri City Hospital for obstetric ultrasound in 2019: a retrospective analysis

Abstract

Objective Our aim is to determine the incidence and distribution of anomalies found in the pregnant women referred to the first obstetric radiology outpatient clinic of our hospital for ultrasound (US) examination in 2019. Methods A total of 5661 obstetric US examinations were performed in 4018 pregnant women, 588 of whom were foreigners, for routine control, follow-up and screening purposes between January 1 and December 31, 2019, and their results were analyzed retrospectively after obtaining the approval of ethics committee. All US examinations were conducted by a single radiologist (ŞT) with Canon Aplio 500 ultrasound device (Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) using 3.5 Mhz convex probe. The results of the cases with anomalies were accessed and grouped systematically, and their incidence and distribution were reviewed by comparing with the literature. Results As a result of the reviewed obstetric US examinations, a total of 62 fetuses with anomalies, 17 of whom were from the foreign pregnant women, were found to have anomalies. Of these anomalies, 29 were craniospinal, 10 were genitourinary, 6 were cardiac, 6 were skeletal, 3 were gastrointestinal, 2 were thoracic and 6 were unclassified. The pregnant women were between 17 and 43 (27.5±7.21) years old and their weeks of gestation were varying between 11 and 39 (22.3±8.63) weeks. There were 8 (13%) pregnant women younger than 20 years old, 43 (69%) pregnant women between 20 and 35 years old, and 11 (18%) pregnant women older than 35 years old. Anomaly diagnosis was established during first trimester in 14 (22.5%) fetuses, 26 (42%) fetuses during second trimester, and 22 (35.5%) fetuses during third trimester. Conclusion We found in our study that the incidence of fetuses with congenital anomaly was 1.54% in total, 2.89% in foreigners and 1.31% in Turkish citizens. The most common anomaly is acrania with 7 (0.15%) cases, and the diagnosis was established during first trimester in six of them. Detailed fetal screening during first trimester is very important for the detection of non-chromosomal anomalies. However, second- and third-trimester examinations are also important for the accurate diagnosis in pregnancies without follow-up.