THE RELIABILITY OF TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY TO DETECT RETAINED TISSUE AFTER SPONTANEOUS FIRST-TRIMESTER ABORTION, CLINICALLY THOUGHT TOBE COMPLETE

In order to assess the reliability of transvaginal ultrasonography for the detection of trophoblastic tissue retained after spontaneous firs t-trimester abortion and clinically thought to be complete, the clinic al, sonographic and pathological data of 33 women were retrospectively analyzed. The patients' mean age was 34 years (range 24-48). The mean gestational age at presentation of symptoms,vas 8 weeks (range 5.1-11 .1). Transvaginal sonography showed that in 18 cases retained tissue w as absent, and that in 15 patients, retained trophoblastic tissue was suspected Pathological reports (following dilatation and curettage) co nfirmed the absence of retained tissue in 17 cases and demonstrated it s presence in 16 patients (13 in whom retained tissue was suspected by sonography and three in whom retained tissue was not suspected). Sens itivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictiv e value in our series were 81%, 94%, 93% and 83%, respectively for the detection of retained trophoblastic tissue. We conclude that transvag inal ultrasonography is a reliable method to detect the presence of re tained trophoblastic tissue following spontaneous first-trimester abor tion, clinically thought to be complete.