Placental Volume and Uterine Artery Doppler in Pregnancy Following In Vitro Fertilization: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Abstract

The number of pregnancies achieved using in vitro fertilization (IVF) is rapidly increasing around the world. The chance of obtaining a successful pregnancy is also significantly improved due to technological advances and improvement in infertility treatment. Despite this success, there is evidence that pregnancy conceived by IVF has an increased risk of adverse maternal and perinatal outcome mainly represented by the development of hypertensive diseases, pre-eclampsia, and fetal growth restriction. Although different cofactors may play a role in the genesis of these diseases, the development of the placenta has a pivotal function in determining pregnancy outcomes. Advances in ultrasound technology already allows for evaluation in the first trimester, the impedance to flow in the uterine artery, and the placental volume using Doppler and three-dimensional techniques. This review article aims to describe the modification occurring in placental volume and hemodynamics after IVF and to summarize the differences present according to the type of IVF (fresh vs. frozen-thawed embryos).

Validation of an automatic software in assessing fetal brain volume from three dimensional ultrasonographic volumes: Comparison with manual analysis

“…7 Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound has been applied for obtaining direct measurement of the placenta and fetal organ volumes. [8][9][10] This is generally obtained using Virtual Organ Computer-Aided-Analysis (VOCAL™) methodology, that allows volume calculation by sequentially rotating around a fixed axis the organ of interest through a number of steps. However, this technique is time consuming, requires a specific training of the operators and showed a low inter-observer reproducibility.…”

“…A limitation is that the lack of validation of the measurements performed for each method for the unfeasibility to calculate FBV in vivo. Besides, VOCAL™ has been extensively tested in different settings8,10 and is considered the gold standard 3D method for performing volumetric assessment, against which Smart ICV™ was tested. A second limitation of our study is represented by the fact that fetal head volumes were acquired by sonographers with experience in 3D ultrasound and our experimental design does not allow to exclude that the same performance of Smart ICV™ may be achieved with operators with a different degree of training.…”