3 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
This study is designed to determine whether the pelvic examination (including bimanual and speculum examination) is necessary in patients with first trimester vaginal bleeding/ lower abdominal pain when an intra-uterine pregnancy (IUP) is seen on ultrasound. Patients with the chief complaint of vaginal bleeding or lower abdominal pain less than 16 weeks and positive HCG will be considered for this non-inferiority-designed clinical trial. All patients who present to the BMC Emergency Department (ED) Mon - Fri from 8am to 11pm and have had serum or urine HCG testing and a formal ultrasound by a credentialed emergency physician or radiology technician as part of standard of care will be screened for further eligibility. Those patients with intra-uterine pregnancies \< 16 weeks gestation seen on ultrasound and meet inclusion criteria will then be asked to provide informed consent to participate in the study. Randomization will occur after consent has been obtained. Half of the patients will be randomized to receive pelvic examinations and the other half will not. Further care will be determined by the treating attending physician. The primary outcome will be a composite morbidity endpoint at 30 days, including return visits to the ED, emergency surgery, need for transfusion, infection, or other missed source of bleeding/ pain. Secondary outcomes of interest include ED throughput time, and patient satisfaction.
Early pregnancy is associated with numerous physiologic alterations - many of which are required to establish normal pregnancy outcome. Three-dimensional ultrasound may provide new opportunities to better characterize some of these early changes. This noninvasive method allows one to arbitrarily scan through a digital ultrasound volume data, visualize organs from different perspectives, and render anatomical features through computer processing. Retrospective measurement of distances and volumes are even possible in the physical absence of the patient. New information provided by three-dimensional ultrasound may lead to improved understanding about how to counsel parents regarding early pregnancy complications such as bleeding. For example, vaginal bleeding complicates approximately 15-20% of first trimester pregnancies. A common association is subchorionic hemorrhage which is associated with increased risk for miscarriage, preterm delivery, preterm premature rupture of membranes, stillbirth, and placental abruption. Several studies have attempted to characterize subchorionic hemorrhage by conventional two-dimensional ultrasound which is not particularly well-suited for accurate measurement of small irregular hematomas. Consequently, there has been considerable debate about the significance of this finding especially in asymptomatic women who undergo prenatal ultrasound examination for other reasons. This protocol will attempt to identify prognostic indicators of adverse pregnancy outcome. A maximum of 400 pregnant women up to 20 weeks' gestation with sonographically detected subchorionic hemorrhage will be serially studies to characterize sac volume, placental volume, hematoma volume, and placental blood vessel patterns by 3DUS techniques. These results will be correlated with pregnancy outcome, hormonal markers, and placental pathology. This information is expected to improve our understanding of the natural history of subchorionic bleeding and spontaneous miscarriages as well as prognostic factors influencing pregnancy outcome in both symptomatic and asymptomatic women.
This study will use thromboelastometry in ED patients with vaginal bleeding, as well as healthy pregnant controls, to determine if abnormal results are associated with the presence of vaginal bleeding as well as later complications during pregnancy.