Placental Vascular Sonobiopsy Using Three-dimensional Power Doppler Ultrasound in Normal and Growth Restricted Fetuses

Reproducibility of Placental Volume and Vasculature Indices Obtained by 3-Dimensional Power Doppler Sonography

“…13 In a small study comparing the VI, FI, and VFI in 10 growth-restricted fetuses and 79 healthy controls, Noguchi et al 10 showed these indices to be significantly lower in the growthrestricted fetuses. Another study also showed altered placental vascular indices in pregnancies with low levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A that resulted in adverse outcomes, including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and growth restriction.…”

Examinations of placental three-dimensional power Doppler indices in pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus and intrauterine growth restriction

“…The three planes of acquired placental volume were explored to localize the zone where the highest vascular density was found by PD mode [59]. The type of sonobiopsy (called "Mercé-type sonobiopsy") that we used is a reproducible, validated method [53,54,57], and by obtaining a representative sample of the placental tree it is applicable throughout the whole pregnancy in contrary to other methods, in which the entire placenta needs to be visualized [55].…”

“…There are some available methods reported in the literature on measuring placental vascular flow [52][53][54][55]59]. Our study was designed based on a literature search for this issue and our aim was to find a technique, which is applicable even if the whole placenta can not be visualized and irrespectively of the placental volume it can be used throughout the whole pregnancy.…”

“…There are some examples in the international literature that the placenta was examined by 3-DPD technique; however, the vast majority of the authors have only analyzed the changes in placental vascularisation [54,56,58] in IUGR, while we investigated the influence of 3-DPD indices on perinatal outcome as well. In addition, we applied a technique which is adequately reproducible until the end of the gestation period.…”

“…Noguchi et al [54] examined the entire placenta attached only to the anterior wall. Their testing method was to average the results of 9-12 sampling spheres by sonobiopsy.…”