By Debjani Baidyaray

Mumbai, February 08: A study conducted by the scientists at Washington University shows that women with fibroids are at higher risk of intrauterine fetal death (IUFD), also known as stillbirth. The scientists studied women who were detected with fibroids during their routine second trimester ultrasound for anatomic survey at 16-22 weeks.

Fibroids are the non cancerous growth of the uterus that occurs during the child bearing age of women. These are the most common benign type of tumors in females and never develop into cancer. Women at reproductive age, heredity, high blood pressure are some of the risk factors known to develop uterine fibroids.

The study was a retrospective cohort study of 64, 047 woman whose data were based on socio-demographics, their medical history and the obstetric outcomes. Cases of women who had at least one fibroid were compared with those who did not have any.

The primary outcome was IUFD after 20 weeks gestation period where univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the risk of IUFD in women with fibroids. A subgroup was conducted according to the presence of or absence of fetal growth restriction (IUGR).

The incidence of fibroids was 3.2 percent in 64,047 women, according to the findings of the study. It was also shown that despite adjusting factors like tobacco exposure, chronic hypertension and pre-gestational diabetes, the incidence of IUFD was higher in women with fibroids. While analyzing the subgroups, risks involving fibroids and IUFD were persisted within the IUGR subgroup.

The results indicate that women who have fibroids and face fetal growth restriction were two-and-half times at risk of having a stillbirth.

This study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting recommends serial scanning and monitoring of the fetal growth in pregnant women with fibroids.

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TAGS: Fibroids, pregnant women

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