Assessment of an intervention to optimise antenatal management of women admitted with preterm labour and intact membranes using amniocentesis-based predictive risk models: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (OPTIM-PTL Study).

Introduction: The majority of women admitted with threatened preterm labour (PTL) do not delivery prematurely. While those with microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity (MIAC) represent the highest risk group, this is a condition that is not routinely ruled out since it requires amniocentesis. Identification of low-risk or high-risk cases might allow individualisation of care, that is, reducing overtreatment with corticosteroids and shorten hospital stay in low-risk women, while allowing early antibiotic therapy in those with MIAC.

Perinatal outcomes with isolated oligohydramnios at term pregnancy.

Aims: To compare the outcomes of term gestations with oligohydramnios in the absence of other underlying disorders and term gestations with normal amniotic fluid.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of obstetric outcomes in 27,708 term pregnancies. We compared three groups: labor induced because of oligohydramnios, spontaneous onset of labor with normal amniotic fluid, and labor induced because of late term pregnancy with normal amniotic fluid.

Perinatal outcomes in singleton pregnancies with a single umbilical artery.

Objective: To analyze perinatal outcomes in singleton pregnancies with a single umbilical artery (SUA) as an isolated finding with no other underlying disorders.

Methods: This retrospective observational study compared a group of pregnancies with SUA (n = 127) and a group with a normal 3-vessel umbilical cord (n = 27 752). The study variables comprised maternal and obstetric characteristics and perinatal outcomes.

Analysis of secondary ultrasound markers in the first trimester before chorionic villus sampling.

Objective: To evaluate detection and false-positive rates of the ultrasound markers-nasal bone (NB), ductus venosus (DV) flow and tricuspid regurgitation (TR)-during the first trimester in a population at high genetic risk, and to study the influence of a two-stage screening policy alter previous combined screening on the rate of invasive procedures.

Methods: A total of 333 chorionic villus samples were obtained in singleton pregnancies. Before biopsy, the ultrasound markers-NB, DV, and TR-were assessed, although the findings were not used to recalculate the previously determined risk for Down syndrome.