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Objective To investigate the relationship between maximal placental thickness during routine anatomy scan and birthweight at delivery. Methods This retrospective descriptive study analyzed 200 term, singleton deliveries in 2016 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. We measured maximal placental thickness in the sagittal plane from the ultrasound images of the placenta obtained at the 18–21-week fetal anatomy screen. The relationship between placental thickness and neonatal birthweight was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between placental thickness and secondary binary outcomes of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission and poor Apgar scores. Two-sample t-tests, or exact Wilcoxon rank-sum test for non-normally distributed data, were used to assess for differences attributable to medical comorbidities (pre-gestational diabetes, gestational diabetes, chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia). Results Placental thickness had a positive correlation with neonatal birthweight [r=0.18, 95% CI=(0.05, 0.32)]. The mean placental thickness measured 34.2±9.7 mm. The strength of the correlation remained similar when adjusting for gestational age (r=0.20) or excluding medical comorbidities (r=0.19). There was no association between placental thickness and NICU admission, Apgar scores Conclusion Our study demonstrated a positive correlation between sonographic placental thickness and birthweight. Future prospective studies are warranted in order to further investigate whether a clinically significant correlation exists while adjusting for more covariates.

Gallbladder disease (GD) is a wide spectrum of disorders of the gallbladder and biliary tract. Complicated GD (CGD; cholecystitis, cholangitis, gallstone pancreatitis) is the third most common cause of rehospitalization within 60 days of delivery. Symptoms of GD include right upper quadrant (RUQ) pain, fever, nausea, and ill appearance. Ultrasound is considered first line as part of the workup for suspected GD disease. Although cholecystectomy may be performed via open or laparoscopic approaches depending on surgeon preference and experience, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and effective at treating GD during pregnancy and may decrease the frequency of antepartum and postpartum admissions of affected patient. Therefore, practitioners should have a low threshold to recommend surgical intervention. Multiple strategies may be employed to reduce the risk of cholecystectomy performed during pregnancy.