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Improving precision of second‐trimester biometry
Author(s) -
Loiacono Christy,
Bethune Michael,
Schneider Michal,
Lombardo Paul
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
australasian journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2205-0140
pISSN - 1836-6864
DOI - 10.1002/ajum.12095
Subject(s) - medicine , sonographer , obstetrics and gynaecology , session (web analytics) , ultrasound , circumference , pregnancy , radiology , mathematics , geometry , biology , world wide web , computer science , genetics
Objective To utilise image score‐based criteria for second‐trimester fetal biometry as an educational tool to improve biometry quality. Methods Five sonographers regularly performing obstetric ultrasound examinations were recruited for this study. Biometry images were collected from fifteen second‐trimester examinations for each sonographer prior to participating in a biometry education session, and another set of biometry images were collected from fifteen second‐trimester examinations following the education session. The education session was a one‐hour presentation that explained image score‐based criteria to evaluate and grade the quality of the bi‐parietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), femur length (FL) and humeral length (HL) biometry parameters. Each of the five sonographers performed a total of 30 examinations (15 pre‐ and 15 post‐education session). From these examinations, a total of 150 images were collected for each biometry parameter (75 pre‐ and 75 post‐education). A total of 600 biometry images were evaluated. Images from both the pre‐ and post‐education session were assessed by an obstetrician sonologist using the same image score‐based criteria. Pre‐ and post‐image scores were compared using paired t‐tests. Results Improvement in the mean image scores for all biometry parameters was observed after the education session. The difference between pre‐ and post‐education image quality scores was significant for the AC (P = 0.01), FL (P = 0.002) and for the overall score (P = 0.001). Conclusion Implementing an image score‐based criteria evaluation technique is a simple and useful method to improve fetal biometry precision.