Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 13, Issue 12 971-975, Copyright © 1994 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Corpus luteum blood flow in normal and abnormal early pregnancy: evaluation with transvaginal color and pulsed Doppler sonography
A. Salim, I. Zalud, G. Farmakides, H. Schulman, A. Kurjak and V. Latin
Ultrasonic Institute, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Croatia.
One hundred and thirteen (66.5%) women in this study had a normal
intrauterine pregnancy with ages ranging 6 to 12 weeks of gestation.
Fifty-seven (33.5%) patients were admitted to the hospital owing to
clinically suspected abnormal early pregnancy. Dilatation and curettage
were done on all women and tissue sample sent to the pathologist for a
final diagnostic. Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy was made on laparoscopy.
Both ovaries were examined carefully by color Doppler in sonography in all
patients. Color flow was used as a guide for pulsed Doppler exploration.
Corpus luteum blood flow was defined as random, usually semilunar in
appearance, dispersed vessels with very low impedance to blood flow. The
resistive index and pulsatility index were calculated. Overall detection
rate of corpus luteum blood flow in normal pregnancies was higher for the
left ovary (62.6%) than for the right ovary (37.4%) (P < 0.01). The mean
resistive and pulsatility indices from corpus luteum blood flow were not
influenced by gestational age in normal pregnancy. The overall mean value
for for resistive index was 0.452 +/- 0.04 and for pulsatility index 0.636
+/- 0.09. The overall detection rate of corpus luteum in abnormal
pregnancies also was higher for the left ovary (56.7%) than for the right
ovary (43.4%) (P < 0.01). The mean resistive indices from corpus luteum
blood flow in patients with missed abortion was higher than in women with
normal pregnancy (P < 0.01). Both resistive and pulsatility indices were
higher in patients with incomplete or threatened abortion in comparison
with normal pregnancy (P < 0.01). No statistically significant
difference was seen in the case of anembryonic, molar, or ectopic
pregnancy.
