Clinical Study of Ultrasonic Shear Wave Elastography in Assessing Placental Function in Patients with Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy during Late Pregnancy

Abstract Introduction Placental dysfunction plays a key role in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy（HDP）. Aiming to noninvasively evaluate the placental dysfunction of HDP, we used ultrasonic shear wave elastography（SWE） to detect the placenta in vivo. Methods Third trimester pregnant women with placental maturity grade II were randomly selected.They were divided into normal group, gestational hypertension(GHTN) groupand preeclampsia(PE) group. The young's modulus of placenta was measured by SWE.The umbilical artery blood flow parameters were measured by spectral Doppler. Results The placental Young's modulus value of the diseased group (GHTN group and PE group) was significantly higher than that of the normal control group(P <0.01). The placental Young's modulus value of the PE group was significantly higher than that of the GHTN group(P<0.01).The young's modulus of placenta had a good correlation with the severity of HDP. Discussion Placental function decreases and placental stiffness increases when HDP occurs. Shear wave elastography can quantitatively analyze placental stiffness, which can objectively reflect changes in placental function and the severity of HDP compared with placental maturity grading.