Diagnostic Utility of Color Doppler Ultrasound for Nuchal Cord Detection at Term: A Prospective Study, GAMAL A. IBRAHIM, MOSTAFA A. SAFWAT and SHERINE H.M. GADALLA
Abstract
Background: Nuchal cords are very common, with prev-alence rates ranging from 18% to 25%. Color Doppler sonog-raphy is a noninvasive method that can be used for nuchalcord diagnosis.Aim of Study: In this study, we investigated the diagnosticaccuracy of color Doppler ultrasound (US) in the detectionof nuchal cord among full term pregnant women.Material and Methods: We conducted a prospective studyon 250 full term pregnant women, who were examined bytwo-dimensional US and color Doppler US to detect nuchalcord presence. Only women with cephalic presentation andsonographicaly detected nuchal cord were included.Results: The mean age of studied group was 26.86±5.53years and the mean parity was 1.59±1.21. The mean gestational age was 38.24±1.218 weeks and the estimated fetal weight was 3.236±0.378Kg. Overall, the two-dimensional US detected 64% of the nuchal cord loops; while the color Doppler US detected 100% of the loops. Besides, the frequency of loops of cord around the neck detected after delivery was 94%; which was one loop in 83% of the cases. Accuracy of 2D US in detecting cord around the neck was 61.2%, while that of color Doppler is 94%.Conclusions: In conclusion, the accuracy of detecting thenuchal cord is more with color Doppler US than two-dimensional US.