January 7, 2012

expert reaction to study of miscarriage and foetal growth, presented at BFS annual meeting

This study on the association between foetal growth and miscarriage was presented as a conference abstract at the 2012 British Fertility Society annual meeting in Leeds.

Professor Tom Bourne, Consultant Gynaecologist, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, said:

“These results do not break new ground. In particular, the association between foetal growth and miscarriage is known and already published (eg. Bottomley et al. (2009) Human Reproduction 24: 278 doi:10.1093/humrep/den382). This study does not add to our existing understanding.”

Professor Basky Thilaganathan, Director, Fetal Medicine Unit, St George’s Hospital, said:

“I have some reservations about these findings and would advise caution in the interpretation of the study. Firstly, the dating of IVF pregnancies may not in fact be precise enough to draw strong conclusions from these data. This is because of the enormous variation in IVF practices to do with ovum donation, frozen embryos, early embryo replacement and late blastocyst transfer. Secondly, the results may be complicated by the fact that in twin pregnancies, one twin is always smaller than its co-twin, and it is not clear how the twin pregnancy growth charts were constructed in this study.”

‘Is growth restriction in the first trimester associated with multiple pregnancy and miscarriage?’, by Shyamaly Sur et al.