Objective To investigate the relationship between maximal placental thickness during routine anatomy scan and birthweight at delivery. Methods This retrospective descriptive study analyzed 200 term, singleton deliveries in 2016 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. We measured maximal placental thickness in the sagittal plane from the ultrasound images of the placenta obtained at the 18–21-week fetal anatomy screen. The relationship between placental thickness and neonatal birthweight was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between placental thickness and secondary binary outcomes of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission and poor Apgar scores. Two-sample t-tests, or exact Wilcoxon rank-sum test for non-normally distributed data, were used to assess for differences attributable to medical comorbidities (pre-gestational diabetes, gestational diabetes, chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia). Results Placental thickness had a positive correlation with neonatal birthweight [r=0.18, 95% CI=(0.05, 0.32)]. The mean placental thickness measured 34.2±9.7 mm. The strength of the correlation remained similar when adjusting for gestational age (r=0.20) or excluding medical comorbidities (r=0.19). There was no association between placental thickness and NICU admission, Apgar scores <7 or medical comorbidities. Conclusion Our study demonstrated a positive correlation between sonographic placental thickness and birthweight. Future prospective studies are warranted in order to further investigate whether a clinically significant correlation exists while adjusting for more covariates.

progression. We tested the hypothesis that women with cHTN are more likely to have a longer first stage of labor. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study of all women with singleton term pregnancies that reached 10 cm cervical dilation at a tertiary care center from 2004 to 2014. Labor curves were compared between patients with and without cHTN and was then stratified by labor type (induction vs spontaneous) and by need for anti-hypertensive agent during pregnancy. T-tests & Mann Whitney U tests were used for continuous variables and chi-square/Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables. Interval-censored regression was used to estimate median times for cervical change. RESULTS: Of the 21,841 patients with term pregnancies that reached 10 cm cervical dilation, 746 (3.4%) had cHTN. Compared to those without cHTN, patients with cHTN were more likely to be 35 or older, obese, African-American, diabetic, have a prior cesarean, undergo induction, and receive oxytocin augmentation. Patients with cHTN were less likely to nulliparous. cHTN patients were more likely to have a longer first stage of labor with a longer time to dilate from 4 to 10 cm (adjusted median 5.86 vs 4.67 hours, p< .01), even after adjusting for confounders. After stratifying by antihypertensive use, there was no difference in labor progression between patients with and without antihypertensive use. CONCLUSION: Women with cHTN had longer first stages of labor than women without cHTN, even after adjusting for relevant confounders and accounting for induction of labor. As the number of pregnant women with cHTN increases, understanding the natural history of labor in this population is essential to the modern practice of obstetrics.

INTRODUCTION: Our study aims to investigate the relationship between maximal placental thickness during routine anatomy scan and birthweight at delivery. METHODS: This retrospective descriptive study analyzed 200 term, singleton deliveries in 2016 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. We measured maximal placental thickness in the sagittal plane from the ultrasound images of the placenta obtained at the 18-21 weeks fetal anatomy screen. The relationship between placental thickness and neonatal birthweight was assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Logistic regression was used to assess the association with secondary binary outcomes of NICU admission and poor APGAR scores. Two sample T-tests were used to assess for differences attributable to medical comorbidities (pre-gestational diabetes, gestational diabetes, chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia). RESULTS: Placental thickness had a positive correlation with neonatal birthweight (r=0.18, 95% CI = (0.05, 0.32)). The mean placental thickness measured 34.2 ± 9.7mm. The strength of the correlation remained similar when adjusting for gestational age (r=0.20) or excluding medical comorbidities (r=0.19). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated no association between placental thickness and NICU admission, APGAR scores <7, or medical comorbidities. CONCLUSION: Our ongoing study demonstrated a positive correlation between sonographic placental thickness and birthweight. Future prospective studies are warranted in order to further investigate whether a clinically significant correlation exists while adjusting for more covariates. As an abnormally thick placenta may indicate implantation problems of placental disease, another area of future study is correlation with placental pathology and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

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comorbidities. Spearman rank correlation was used to evaluate correlations between continuous variables. RESULTS: 105 ultrasounds from 49 women were included. Mean maternal age was 34.5 years (19-51) with a mean gestational age of 35.1 weeks (12-41). 17% of the women had underlying hypertensive disease and 16.6% had a fetus with growth restriction. Maternal age correlated with time-averaged maximum velocity (r¼-0.6, p<0.05), as well as the mean aortic valve (AV) peak gradient (r¼-0.7, p<0.05). When comparing the group with hypertensive disease to all others, the systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) is significantly higher (1324 vs 1149 dyn d s/cm 5 ,p¼0.03). However, stroke volume index (SVI) and cardiac index (CI) were not different. When comparing group with growth restriction to the rest there was no significant difference in CI, SVI nor SVRI versus controls. CONCLUSION: Maternal hemodynamic profiles are obtained through the descending aorta. The SVRI is significantly elevated with hypertensive disease. However, there was no evidence of decreased systemic perfusion. Components of the descending aorta cardiac profile may allow identification of the pregnancy at risk for adverse outcome prior to manifesting traditional markers of severe disease.