The effect of vaginal progesterone on Doppler findings in increased uterine artery resistance

Abstract

Objective

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of vaginal progesterone on Doppler finding in increased uterine artery resistance compared with aspirin.

Materials and methods

This study is a double-blind randomized clinical trial that was conducted on 140 pregnant women with increased uterine artery resistance who were referred to the Shariati hospital (Tehran, Iran) in 2017–2018. Patients were randomized to 1 of the 3 treatment groups – group A: tablet aspirin 80 mg; group B: vaginal suppository progesterone; and group C: control group without any intervention. Low-risk pregnant women at the gestational age of 16–20 weeks, were assessed by the uterine artery Doppler. In the presence of increased resistance of the uterine artery, patients were randomly assigned to one of the three above mentioned groups.

Results

The results of paired t-tests for right uterine artery pulsatility index (RUA.PI), right uterine artery resistance index (RUA.RI), left uterine artery PI (LUA.PI), and left uterine artery RI (LUA.RI) before and after of intervention in the three groups were statistically significant. Also, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for comparison between three groups showed that before the intervention only means of RUA.PI has a significant difference between three groups (p = .025), but means of all variables after intervention shows a significant difference (p < .001).

Conclusion

The findings showed that the use of vaginal progesterone suppressed the resistance of uterine artery compared to aspirin.

Keywords:

• Doppler
• progesterone
• uterine artery

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). We gratefully acknowledge the kind support of the participants for their precious collaboration in this study as well as the staff of Shariati Hospital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.