Pregnancy diagnosis Real Time Ultra-sound

What are we actually looking at?

Not pregnant

17 days pregnancy – difficult to see uterine vesicles

28 days pregnancy – vesicles easy to see – but note the embryo

35 days – note the uterine vesicles easy to see with prominent embryo

80+ days Bone in foetus becomes more obvious, but foetus can be difficult to see against the general mother background. Note maternal gut can look like uterine vesicle but there is no distinct edge. It can become difficult to see the foetus against the maternal abdomen as the allantoic fluid reduces in prominence

Complications

Pseudopregnancy – around 35 days

Note while there appears to be black holes there are no embryos

Sometime the uterine lumen may be filled with a “grains”