R. Napolitano

Uterine artery Doppler screening for pre-eclampsia: comparison of the lower, mean and higher first-trimester pulsatility indices.

A previous study suggested that the lower uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) is a better predictor of pre‐eclampsia than is either the mean or higher indices. The aim of this study was to assess the relative value of these three indices for the prediction of pre‐eclampsia in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Pregnancy dating by fetal crown-rump length: a systematic review of charts.

Fetal crown–rump length (CRL) measurement by ultrasound in the first trimester is the standard method for pregnancy dating; however, a multitude of CRL equations to estimate gestational age (GA) are reported in the literature.

Placenta accreta: incidence and risk factors in an area with a particularly high rate of cesarean section

Placenta accreta is a rare and potentially life‐threatening complication of pregnancy characterized by abnormal adherence of the placenta to the uterine wall. A previously scarred uterus or an abnormal site of placentation in the lower segment is a major risk factor. The aim of this study was to investigate the change in the incidence of placenta accreta and associated risk factors along four decades, from the 1970s to 2000s, in a tertiary south Italian center. We analyzed all cases of placenta accreta in a sample triennium for each decade. The incidence increased from 0.12% during the 1970s, to 0.31% during the 2000s. During the same period, cesarean section rates increased from 17 to 64%. Prior cesarean section was the only risk factor showing a significant concomitant rise. Our results reinforce cesarean section as the most significant predisposing condition for placenta accreta.

Screening for pre‐eclampsia by using changes in uterine artery Doppler indices with advancing gestation

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship of changes in uterine artery (UtA) Doppler pulsatility indices (PI) between first and second trimesters and the subsequent development of pre‐eclampsia.

Sensitivity of higher, lower and mean second-trimester uterine artery Doppler resistance indices in screening for pre-eclampsia.

First‐trimester Doppler studies have reported that the lower uterine artery (UtA) resistance index (RI) is better for the prediction of pre‐eclampsia (PE) than is either the mean or higher indices. The aim of this study was to determine if this relationship is true in the second trimester.

Image‐scoring system for crown–rump length measurement

To develop and evaluate an objective image‐scoring system for crown–rump length (CRL) measurements and to determine how this compares with subjective assessment.

Searching for Structures of Interest in an Ultrasound Video Sequence

Ultrasound diagnosis and therapy is typically protocol driven but often criticized for requiring highly-skilled sonographers. However there is a shortage of highly trained sonographers worldwide, which is limiting the wider adoption of this cost-effective technology. The challenge therefore is to make the technology easier to use. We consider this problem in this paper. Our approach combines simple standardized clinical US scanning protocols (defined by our clinical partners) with machine learning driven image analysis solutions to enable a non-expert to perform ultrasound-based diagnostic tasks with minimal training. Motivated by recent work on dynamic texture analysis within the computer vision community, we have developed, and evaluated on clinical data, a framework that given a training set of Ultrasound Sweep Videos (USV), models the temporal evolution of objects of interest as a kernel dynamic texture which can form the basis of a metric for detecting structures of interest in new unseen videos. We describe the full original method, and demonstrate that it outperforms a simpler recently proposed approach on phantom data, and is significantly superior in performance on real clinical data.

Registration of 3D fetal neurosonography and MRI

Graphical abstract Highlights • A novel method for affine registration of fetal neurosonography and brain MRI proposed.• Conversion of fetal MRI into pseudo US image described.• All data were successfully aligned using robust block-matching approach.• Average of 27 US volumes revealed near-complete anatomy of the fetal brain.

Prenatal Diagnosis of Seckel Syndrome on 3-Dimensional Sonography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

renatal diagnosis of Seckel syndrome, which is characterized by growth restriction, microcephaly, and typical dysmorphic facial features, has been thoroughly described only once. We report the use of 3-dimensional imaging to recognize the typical facial features and the brain abnormalities, the latter also studied by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in a 31-week-old fetus referred for severe growth restriction and microcephaly.

Registration of 3d fetal brain US and MRI

We propose a novel method for registration of 3D fetal brain ultrasound and a reconstructed magnetic resonance fetal brain volumes. The reconstructed MR volume is first segmented using a probabilistic atlas and an ultrasound-like image volume is simulated from the segmentation of the MR image. This ultrasound-like image volume is then affinely aligned with real ultrasound volumes of 27 fetal brains using a robust block-matching approach which can deal with intensity artefacts and missing features in ultrasound images. We show that this approach results in good overlap of four small structures. The average of the co-aligned US images shows good correlation with anatomy of the fetal brain as seen in the MR reconstruction.