A cost-minimisation analysis of performing point-of-care ultrasonography on patients with vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy in general practice: a decision analytical model

Background Spotting and light vaginal bleeding are common and usually harmless symptoms in early pregnancy. Still, vaginal bleeding may be the first sign of an abortion and often causes distress to pregnant women and leads to an expectation of an ultrasonography examination of the uterus. As point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) is increasingly being integrated into general practice, these patients may be clinically evaluated and managed by general practitioners (GPs). This can potentially reduce referrals of patients from the primary to the secondary healthcare sector resulting in societal cost-savings. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether the accessibility of POCUS in general practice for patients with vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy is cost-saving compared to usual practice where GPs do not have access to POCUS. A secondary purpose of this study was to estimate a remuneration for GPs performing POCUS on these patients in general practice. Methods A cost-minimisation analysis was based on a decision tree model reflecting the two alternatives: general practice with and without GPs having access to POCUS. The robustness of the model results was investigated using probabilistic sensitivity analysis and the following deterministic sensitivity analyses: one-way analyses for the model input parameters and a scenario analysis with a change from a societal to a healthcare sector perspective. An expected remuneration reflecting the add-on cost of Danish GPs performing POCUS was estimated based on the related costs: cost of an ultrasonography scanner, GP’s time consumption, ultrasonography training, and utensils per scanning. Results The difference in average cost between the two alternatives from a societal perspective was estimated to be €110, in favour of general practice with GPs using POCUS. The deterministic sensitivity analyses demonstrated robustness of the results to plausible changes in the input parameters. The expected remuneration for performing POCUS in this specific setting was estimated to be €32 per examination. Conclusion Having GPs perform POCUS on patients with vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy is cost-saving compared to usual practice. The results should be taken with caution as this study was based on early modelling with uncertainties associated with the input parameters in the model.

Long-term risk of cancer following pregnancies complicated by vaginal bleeding

Objective: To investigate an association of vaginal bleeding-affected deliveries with the long-term risk of cancer as compared with vaginal bleeding-unaffected deliveries and pregnancies ending in a termination or miscarriage. Design: Registry-based cohort study in Denmark, 1995-2017. Setting: Danish health and administrative registries. Participants: Deliveries (N=37,085) affected by vaginal bleeding (VB) within 20 gestational weeks among 35,517 women, VB-unaffected deliveries (N=1,362,760) among 783,020 women, pregnancies ending in a termination (N=324,395) among 239,729 women or miscarriage (N=137,040) among 121,303 women. Main outcome measures: Incidence rates (IR) per 10,000 person-years and cumulative incidence of cancer at the end of up to 24 years of follow-up, hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) adjusted for age, calendar year, reproductive history, history of chronic conditions, medication use, and socioeconomic factors using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: We observed 1,725 cancer events (IR=32.1, 95% CI: 30.6-33.6) following VB-affected deliveries, 52,620 events (IR=31.5, 95% CI: 31.2-31.7) following VB-unaffected deliveries, 12,925 events (IR=30.1, 95% CI: 29.6-30.6) following a termination and 6,080 events (IR=34.3, 95% CI: 33.4-35.1) following a miscarriage. We found no association between VB and any cancer in comparison with VB-unaffected deliveries (HR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.93-1.03), terminations (HR=1.00, 95% CI: 0.94-1.06) and miscarriages (HR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.94-1.14). Specifically, there was no increase in relative risk of breast (HR=0.94, 95% CI: 0.86-1.03), cervical (0.94, 0.77-1.14), ovarian and fallopian tube (1.16, 0.81-1.66), uterine cancer (0.78, 0.46-1.33) and other site-specific cancers across all comparisons and in sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Having a VB-affected pregnancy ending in a delivery was not associated with an increased risk of cancer in women in comparison with having a VB-unaffected pregnancy ending in a delivery, termination or miscarriage.

NICE guideline “Ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage”: new changes and importance for the clinicist

The purpose of this publication is to summarize the current data on the effectiveness of progestogens in patients with threatened miscarriage (vaginal bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy) and to review the updated UK National Institute for Health and Care Excel (NICE) clinical guidelines on ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage.In accordance with the opinion of the Cochrane Society experts and the updated NICE clinical guidelines for 2021, vaginal progesterone at a dose of 800 mg/day is the only intervention that has been shown to be effective in increasing live births compared to placebo for women with one or more previous miscarriages and early vaginal bleeding (relative risk 1.08, 95% confidence interval 1.02–1.15, high certainty evidence). Upon confirmation of fetal heartbeat, this treatment should be extended until 16 weeks of gestation.There is still uncertainty over the effectiveness and safety of alternative progestogen treatments (as dydrogesterone) for threatened and recurrent miscarriage. There is also no evidence of benefit of any other preparations or doses of progesterone in patients at risk of miscarriage.

Maternal serum CA-125 repeated measurement during pregnancy and how to use as a prognostic factor of first trimester pregnancy outcome

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the prognostic efficacy of repeated measurement of maternal serum CA125 in first trimester threatened miscarriage.Methods: Prospective case control study was conducted in the outpatient clinic. 100 pregnant women were divided into 50 women with normal course of pregnancy, and the other 50 were subdivided into 25 pregnant women with lower abdominal pain without vaginal bleeding and 25 presented with minimal vaginal bleeding. Repeated measuring of serum CA125 was done for each case on the 5th, 10th weeks of gestation.Results: Findings of this study suggested the possibility of using serum CA-125 for determining the prognosis of first trimester threatened miscarriage with cut-off value of CA125 38.25 U/ml on the 5th week of gestation and 53 U/ml on the 10th week of gestation in patients presented with pain only but in patients presented with minimal vaginal bleeding the cut-off value of CA125 on the 5th week of gestation become 45.6 U/ml and 68 U/ml on the 10th week of gestation.Conclusions: CA125, on its own, can discriminate between continued and non-continued pregnancy.

Embarazo a término en útero bicorne con cuerno rudimentario no comunicante. Reporte de un caso

The bicorne uterus with a rudimentary non-communicating horn may be associated with gynecological and obstetric complications such as infertility, endometriosis, hematometra, urinary tract abnormalities, abortions, and preterm deliveries. Excision of the rudimentary horn should be done outside of pregnancy, with followup during pregnancy, looking for complications. We present the case of a 40-year-old patient, who presented abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, with a full-term pregnancy in a rudimentary non-communicating horn of a bicorne uterus. Physical examination showed abdominal distention and loss of uterine contour and no fetal parts were palpated. The provisional diagnosis of rupture of the uterus was made. Emergency laparotomy revealed a dead and deformed fetus, 37 weeks old, in a bicorne uterus with a broken rudimentary non-communicating horn, along with an acretic placenta. Extraction of the gestational sac, fetus and placenta and subtotal hysterectomy with conservation of the left annex were performed. Keywords: Rudimentary horn not communicating, Bicornuate uterus, Term pregnancy