Evaluation of placental stiffness in normal versus high risk pregnancy using shear wave elastography

Abstract

Background: Ultrasound is essential for assessing normal and high-risk pregnancies. A unique ultrasonographic method, shear wave elastography (SWE), measures soft tissue component elasticity. This approach has been used in obstetrics lately. This research uses SWE to assess placental stiffness in healthy and high-risk pregnant women. Method: The Ultrasound clinic of Al-Zahraa teaching hospital in Al-Najaf governorate performed a case-control research of 100 singleton pregnant women (40 cases and 60 controls) from October to December 2022. Cases were pregnant referred from obstetric clinics with gestational hypertension or diabetes, whereas 60 controls were healthy pregnant with no clinical or sonographic signs of high risk. All cases and controls were 2nd or 3rd trimesters. All patients had B-mode ultrasonography and placental SWE exams, and SPSS was used to analyze the data. Results: There was a significant difference in mean placental SWE values between studied groups, with the highest means found in pregnant with gestational hypertension (2.05 m/s) and gestational diabetes (1.5 m/s) and the lowest mean found in normal pregnant (1.1 m/s), with a cut-off value of 1.27 m/s to distinguish normal and abnormal placenta In high-risk pregnant women, placental thickness, amniotic fluid index, and stiffness were positively correlated. Conclusion: Normal pregnancy had less placental stiffness than high-risk pregnancy (hypertension and diabetes). Thus, SWE technology may quantify placenta morphological disorders in hazardous pregnant women.