Guideline-based quality indicators for early pregnancy assessment units.

Research Question: What valid guideline-based quality indicators can measure quality of care in early pregnancy assessment units (EPAU)?

Design: The systematic RAND-modified Delphi method was used to develop an indicator set from four evidence-based guidelines. An international expert panel was assembled to extract recommendations from these guidelines to establish quality indicators.

Results: A total of 119 recommendations were extracted.

Early pregnancy care over time: should we promote an early pregnancy assessment unit?

In this observational study, the effect of the introduction of the first Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit (EPAU) in a university hospital in The Netherlands in 2008 on early pregnancy care is analysed. Derivatives of quality of care were measured before and after the establishment of the EPAU, with the aim of reducing unnecessary care. Care within three time periods was measured: 2006, 2009 and 2012.

Genetics of early miscarriage.

A miscarriage is the most frequent complication of a pregnancy. Poor chromosome preparations, culture failure, or maternal cell contamination may hamper conventional karyotyping. Techniques such as chromosomal comparative genomic hybridization (chromosomal-CGH), array-comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) and quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) enable us to trace submicroscopic abnormalities.