Purpose or Case Report: To utilize and investigate the value of SWE in cases of placenta previa-accreta and also to evaluate the value of ultrasonography and MRI in the prenatal prediction of morbidly adherent placenta.
Methods & Materials: Forty-three women with normal placental location and twenty-six women with anteriorly localized placenta previa had a SWE examination of the placentas. Pregnancies with placenta previa underwent both ultrasonography and MRI prenatally. Diagnostic ability of both modalities for the prediction of placenta accreta is evaluated. All the cases were correlated with surgical and pathological findings.
Results: Of the 26 pregnancies with placenta previa 13 (50%) had morbidly adherent placenta. Caesarean hysterectomy was performed in 6 (6/13, 46.2%) of the placenta accreta cases. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound and MRI were 84.6%, 76.9%, 80.7% and 100%, 76.9%, 88.4% respectively regarding their ability to predict placenta accreta within high risk patients with placenta previa. SWE values were higher in the placenta previa group in all regions than in normal localized placentas (p<0.01). However there was no statistically significant difference between SWE values of placenta previa pregnancies with and without morbidly adherent placenta (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Placental stiffness is significantly higher in placenta previa-accreta than normal localized placentas. However, we could not demonstrate any statistically significant difference in the elasticity values between the placenta previa with and without accreta. Magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound is extremely effective for the prenatal diagnosis of placenta accreta within patients with placenta previa.