Transvaginal color doppler assessment of uteroplacental circulation in normal and abnormal early pregnancy

Transvaginal color Doppler offers the potential to study uteroplacental circulation in early normal pregnancies and pregnancies associated with intrautine fibroids. A total of 62 patients (30 early pregnancies complicated by myoma and 32 normal pregnancies representing the control group) whose gestational age ranged from the 6th to the 14th week were examined. The equipment used was an Aloka color Doppler SSD-680 with 5.0 MHz curve-linear transvaginal transducer. The main uterine, radial and spiral arteries were identified in all patients. Peak systolic velocity and resistance index were measured and automatically calculated. Statistical analysis used was Student t-test. This study documents a physiological decrease in impedance in the uteroplacental circulation in pregnancy associated with fibroids, while the blood velocity of the radial arteries showed a significant increase between the 10th and 14th week of gestation.