COMPARISON OF ULTRASONOGRAPHIC FINDINGS IN SPONTANEOUS-ABORTIONS WITHNORMAL AND ABNORMAL KARYOTYPES

To determine whether ultrasonographic findings can predict the karyoty pe of spontaneous abortions, 137 pregnancies (54 spontaneous, 83 assis ted ovulatory cycles) that subsequently aborted and had chromosome ana lysis performed on the products of conception were studied ultrasonogr aphically, Transvaginal ultrasound was performed using an Acuson 128XP /10 with 7.5 MHz probe, The numbers of empty gestational sacs, small a nd normal for gestational size, embryonic poles and embryos with docum ented cardiac activity were calculated, The frequency of each of these findings in pregnancies with normal and abnormal karyotypes was compa red, Of the 137 spontaneous abortions, 51 had normal chromosome analys es and 86 had abnormal karyotypes (68 aneuploidies and 18 polyploidies ), Ultrasonographic findings in the 51 karyotypically normal pregnanci es included 16 (31%) with empty gestational sacs, and 35 (69%) with em bryonic poles, of which 24 (69%) were at least 1 week smaller than exp ected for gestational age and 11 (31%) were the expected size, Embryon ic cardiac activity was documented in 22 (63%) of the 35 embryonic pol es, Amongst 86 pregnancies with abnormal karyotypes, similar frequenci es of ultrasound findings were found: 23 (27%) with empty gestational sacs, 42 (67%) with embryonic poles smaller than expected for gestatio nal age, and 50 (79%) embryos lost after documentation of embryonic ca rdiac activity, No differences in the frequency of ultrasonographic fi ndings of empty gestational sacs, small embryonic pole and embryonic c ardiac activity were observed between karyotypically normal and abnorm al spontaneous abortions, Ultrasonographic findings cannot predict the karyotype of spontaneous abortions.