Aris Papageorghiou: Standardizing First-Trimester Ultrasound Care
Aris Papageorghiou, Professor of Fetal Medicine at University of Oxford, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper published in PLOS Medicine:
“Ultrasound technology is moving rapidly – meaning we can now diagnose many serious fetal conditions far earlier than before. Yet in most settings, clinical guidance has not kept pace.
In our study based in England, drawing on data from over one million pregnancies, we found striking variation in what NHS trusts offer at the 11-14 week visit. There is no clear guidance in England, so hospitals do different things. We found that those using structured early anatomical assessment detected 40% of major fetal anomalies before 16 weeks, compared with 28% in trusts without such protocols.
These differences are driven by lack of unified policy and practice, not possibility.
These data matter for women and their families. Earlier detection changes everything: it opens space for appropriate investigations, multidisciplinary planning, and safer clinical decision-making. The evidence now strongly supports the need for nationally standardised first-trimester ultrasound guidance so that equitable early diagnosis is available irrespective of postcode.
Enormous thanks to an exceptional team Jehan Karim, Pranav Pandya, Nicholas Aldridge, Jenny Broughan, Annette McHugh, Oliver Rivero-Arias and all our collaborators.
Grateful also for the the support of NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) (the HTA Programme funded us), University of Oxford , and the leadership of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists | RCOG and ISUOG International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology in strengthening standards for prenatal care, and our parent organisations including Tiny Tickers ‘The Tiny Hearts Charity’, NCT, SHINE and ARC-U.K.
Full open-access paper.”
Title: Impact of first-trimester ultrasound on early detection of major fetal anomalies: Nationwide population-based study of over 1 million pregnancies
Authors: Jehan N. Karim, Jennifer M. Broughan, Nicholas Aldridge, Pranav Pandya, Annette McHugh, Aris T. Papageorghiou
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