ULTRASOUND APPEARANCE OF A DEVELOPING MOLE

A 40-year-old primigravida at her 9th week of pregnancy presented with uterine bleeding and an ultrasound picture of a non-embryonic pregnan cy with an empty gestational sac but a thickened base of high echogeni city, A week later this thickened area showed a placenta-like disc wit h a picture of early molar change, At ultrasound follow-up, this progr essed to a full hydatidiform mole filling the whole of the uterine cav ity; the empty gestational sac had disappeared. The molar pregnancy wa s confirmed histologically following suction evacuation of the uterus, Early ultrasound diagnosis of a non-embryonic pregnancy or a blighted ovum may not rule out the presence of abnormal trophoblast associated with hydatidiform mole. Failed early pregnancies should be evacuated immediately once diagnosed.