Pregnancy outcome of threatened abortion with demonstrable fetal cardiac activity: a cohort study.

UNLABELLED: Pregnancy with visible fetal heart beat complicated by first trimester threatened abortion had significant increased risk of subsequent spontaneous abortion compared with normal pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE

To compare pregnancy outcomes in cases complicated by first trimester threatened abortion with those that were not.

METHODS

Prospective cohort study of 255 cases of first trimester threatened abortions but with visible heart beat and 265 other normal pregnancies.

RESULTS

Spontaneous abortion rates of 5.5% (with relative abortal risk of 2.91) was found for study group, compared to 1.88% for controls (p < 0.05). Preterm delivery was also higher, but was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

First trimester bleeding with visible fetal heart beat appears to associate significantly with higher subsequent spontaneous abortion rate than those without.