Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

Successful pregnancy is dependent on an intricate balance between the mother and fetus. The placenta forms the interface between the mother and the fetus, so abnormal placental development or damage can have profound implications on the pregnancy and life-long health of mother and child. Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction are examples of two diseases that are strongly linked to placental abnormalities and would benefit from early detection to improve outcomes. This research will develop and study new ultrasound measurements of placental abnormalities, in particular the stiffness of the placenta. Elastography is a technique for measuring the elasticity, or stiffness, of tissue and has shown promising results in preliminary research. A particular version of elastography was invented at the University of British Columbia and is called SWAVE: Shear Wave Absolute Vibro-Elastography. It is based on a standard ultrasound machine so elasticity measurements of the placenta could be easily added to the standard fetal ultrasound examination of all pregnancies. The hope is that the combination of standard ultrasound and SWAVE will provide better measures for placental abnormalities, and thereby help to identify pregnancies at risk for preeclampsia or fetal growth restriction, so that preventative measures can be taken early. It may also better discriminate normal from abnormal pregnancies that, in turn, will avoid unnecessary extra monitoring of pregnancies that are truly normal. This will reassure parents and avoid unnecessary interventions such as artificially inducing labour. This will also make better use of scarce hospital resources.