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Objective: To evaluate the changes of pelvic floor tissue structure and function between pregnant and non-pregnant women from the view of transperineal pelvic floor ultrasound., Methods: Thirty-eight cases of women with a second singleton pregnancy and thirty-two cases of women with a first singleton pregnancy underwent transperineal pelvic floor ultrasound, and their results were compared with forty-two cases of healthy non-pregnant women., Results: The differences of bladder neck descent (BND), rectal ampulla distance and levator hiatus area (LHA) among the three groups were statistically significant (P<0.05), and the differences of BND, rectal ampulla distance, LHA between the women with a second singleton pregnancy group and non-pragnent group were statistically significant (P<0.05). The BND, retrovesical angle at rest (RVA-R) and retrovesical angle underwent Valsalva maneuver (RVA-V) in the group of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) during pregnancy were larger than those in non-SUI group, with significant difference (P<0.05), especially BND and RVA-V (P = 0.00)., Conclusion: Transperineal pelvic floor ultrasound has a high resolution of pelvic floor structure and function changes during pregnancy, and can dynamically evaluate pelvic floor function, providing a theoretical basis for early diagnosis and prevention of female pelvic floor dysfunction (FPFD) in subsequent pregnancies., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 Xu et al.)

Objective: To explore the relationship between 3D power Doppler ultrasound (3D-PDU) and serum MMP-2 and Ang-2 levels in pregnant women with preeclampsia (PE)., Study Design: Comparative analytical study., Place and Duration of Study: The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, China, from October 2017 to January 2020., Methodology: One hundred and thirty-four pregnant women with PE were selected as the research subjects, with 67 cases in mild group and 67 cases in severe group. Sixty-seven healthy primigravidas were selected as normal control group. Serum MMP-2 and Ang-2 were detected. All subjects underwent prenatal 3D-PDU examination, and VI, FI and VFI were measured., Results: Compared to normal control group, serum MMP-2 and Ang-2 levels of mild group and severe group decreased successively (all p <0.001); VI, FI, and VFI of mild group and severe group decreased successively (both p <0.001). Pearson correlation analysis showed that serum MMP-2 in pregnant women with PE was positively correlated with VI, FI, VFI (r = 0.940, p <0.001, r = 0.938, p <0.001, and r = 0.921, p <0.001, respectively); and serum Ang-2 was positively correlated with VI, FI, VFI (r = 0.958, p <0.001; r = 0.960; p <0.001; r = 0.945, p <0.001, respectively)., Conclusion: 3D-PDU has a certain application value in the diagnosis of pregnant women with PE, variation tendency of VI, FI and VFI detected by 3D-PDU is closely associated with serum MMP-2 and Ang-2 levels. Key Words: Preeclampsia, Pregnant women, MMP-2, Ang-2, 3D power Doppler ultrasound (3D-PDU).