Are ultrasound measurements of the cervical length and fetal head-perineum distance predictive of delivery outcome in post-term pregnancies?

Objective. - Post-term pregnancy is frequently associated with higher fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality. Its management essentially depends on clinical cervical characteristics as evaluated by the Bishop score (BS). However, BS is poorly predictive of the delivery outcome. We sought to demonstrate that ultrasound measurement of cervical length and evaluation of fetal height could predict the outcome in post-term pregnancies. Methods. - A prospective single center study was undertaken between the 21st of January and the 1st of June 2013. Fetal height was measured using a transperineal technique and cervical length was evaluated by a vaginal ultrasound on patients consulting and their term date. C-section rates were considered to be the primary judgment criteria. Results. - A total of 136 patients were included. C-section rates in this population was 19%. Fetal height and cervical length were not different between the C-section group and the vaginal delivery group. Conclusion. - Our study demonstrates that ultrasound measurement of cervical length and fetal height do not show better results than BS in predicting the outcome of post-term pregnancy. Combining these ultrasound measurements has already been suggested in other studies and promising results have been shown. More studies are necessary to further these results. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.