加藤 達夫¹, 後藤 濬二²

Tatsuo KATO¹, Shunji GOTO²

¹加藤産婦人科病院, ²国立名古屋病院産婦人科

¹Kato Hospital, ²Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nagoya National Hospital

キーワード : Ultrasonography, Embryonic death, Fetal death, Spontaneous abortion

　By using real-time ultrasonography, the incidence of embryonic and fetal deaths were evaluated in various periods of pregnancy. The time of death was estimated according to the size of GS and CRL, and/or the LMP. The results are as follows. 1) The over all rate of embryonic and fetal deaths was 9.8% (235 cases) in 2399 pregnant women. The time of these deaths was classified into four different periods, after 23 weeks of gestation, after 9 weeks, from 6 to 9 weeks, and before 6 weeks. 2) Embryonic deaths before 10 weeks amounted to 89.4% (210 cases) among these deaths (235 cases), whereas the fetal death after 9 weeks amounted to only 10.6% (25 cases). The rate of embryonic death between 6 and 9 weeks and before 6 weeks were 18.1% (38 cases) and 81.9% respectively. 3) When the fetal heart movement was detected, the rate of deaths was only 2.83% (63/2227). From these results, it is suggested that most of embryonic death occur due to the arrest of development of fertilized ova before 6 weeks. We have not yet known the causes of damages in fertilized ova in the early stage of pregnancy. It is inadequate to use a term of "embryonic death" in the above mentioned cases.