Maternal-fetal medicine

Maternal-fetal medicine

This edition of our journal begins at the obstetrics section with an article that underlines the role of a congenital malformations registry, realizing a systematic and comprehensive database that collects, stores and analyzes information about congenital malformations detected at birth or during pregnancy. As the Romanian National Congenital Anomaly Registry (RN-CAR) is considered the next step in the fetal malformation diagnosis and subsequent management, this paper presents the benefits of a national database for both patients and doctors.

Further, it is brought under the attention a study that analyzes the sonographic findings in open spina bifida, detected in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, correlating them with the morphopathological aspects.

First-trimester screening is the most important method for detecting major fetal anomalies. Noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs) have been used more frequently to evaluate genetic anomalies but, as the study presented in our paper shows, noninvasive prenatal testing should not be used as the only screening method for fetal anomalies – this test must be accompanied by an ultrasound scan of the fetal anatomy.

As Doppler ultrasound techniques are known to be essential tools in the noninvasive assessment of fetal cardiovascular function, particularly for measuring atrioventricular (AV) time intervals, these measurements provide important information about the heart’s function and can aid in the diagnosis of fetal arrhythmias, especially heart blocks.

At the gynecology section, the first article presents a case of mucinous cystadenoma, a benign neoplasm frequently encountered in the ovaries, dis­tin­guished by its significantly larger growth potential compared to other adnexal masses, identified through imaging in a 20-year-old patient, highlighting the occur­re­nce of such tumors in younger indivi­duals, necessitating optimal and timely management.

Moving on, a review of literature about the luteal phase stimulation is brought under the attention. The luteal phase, initiated after ovulation, is cha­rac­te­rized by the secretion of proge­ste­rone by the corpus luteum, which is essential for preparing the endometrium for em­bryo implantation.

The next paper is a study which reveals that neither granulocyte colony stimulating factor, nor platelet-rich plasma influenced clinical pregnancy rates or overall pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing frozen embryo transfer (FET). While platelet-rich plasma (PRP) improved endometrial vascularity, it did not affect the clinical pregnancy rates. Both interventions produced similar results to those using saline.