PLACENTA-ACCRETA - IMAGING BY GRAY-SCALE AND CONTRAST-ENHANCED COLOR DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY AND MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

Antepartum diagnosis of placenta accreta on the scarred myometrium of the isthmus uteri after previous cesarean section was made in 2 pregna ncies. Antepartum sonographic examination revealed abnormal bulging of placental tissue toward the bladder cavity and arcuate arteries withi n the bladder wall. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed the depth and extent of placental invasion into the myometrium of the isthmus and th e bladder muscular layer. Low-resistance pulsatile intervillous flow w as recorded within the placenta in 1 case. Both magnetic resonance ima ging and contrast-enhanced color Doppler sonography were informative i n the other of these cases, in which the patient was conservatively ma naged during pregnancy and after delivery. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.