Point of Care Ultrasound in Pregnant Women (PoCUS-OB)
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: PoCUS.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Basic parameters: from 18 years · Female.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Canada
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Point of Care Ultrasound (PoCUS) as a Tool to Evaluate Patients at High Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the Obstetric Population
Overview
Pregnant women with gestational age more than 20 weeks are at risk of developing Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA is a common underdiagnosed comorbid condition in pregnant women associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. It is a severe form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), featured with repeated episodes of airflow reduction or cessation during sleep. It exists in different severity among pregnant women and maybe worsen over the course of the pregnancy. If OSA remains untreated, it can complicate the pregnancy by developing heart failure, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and hypertension. To determine the OSA during pregnancy has become an important issue to reduce the morbidity related to it. Currently, Polysomnography (PSG) remains the gold standard for diagnosing OSA, but scheduling and logistics remain significant impediments to accessibility for pregnant women. Home sleep apnea tests (HST) is a promising alternative but are expensive and not widely available. Point of care ultrasonography (PoCUS) is being increasingly used across specialties. Our preliminary data support the feasibility of PoCUS in the preoperative setting and increasing the diagnostic accuracy and the specificity for moderate to severe OSA (AHI \>15 events per h) when combined with the STOP-Bang questionnaire (cut-off \>5). Given that HST shows high levels of agreement with PSG for the diagnosis of OSA and are significantly less burdensome than PSG, investigators will evaluate the PoCUS airway examination against the HST for the diagnosis of OSA in pregnant women at high risk of OSA.
Detailed description
This project is to define the range of mouth and tongue dimensions and to visualize airway structures by using ultrasound. Given that Home sleep apnea tests (HST) shows high levels of accuracy for the diagnosis of Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), investigators hypothesize that the Point of care ultrasonography (PoCUS) airway examination against the HST for the diagnosis of OSA in pregnant women at the high-risk can,
1. reliably visualize upper airway structures that are responsible for OSA; 2. objectively measure airway soft tissue thickness and dimensions; and 3. identify pregnant women with moderate-severe OSA.
Interventions
- Diagnostic test PoCUS
Participants after getting recruited will be asked for an ultrasonography of the neck. It will take around 30 minutes. At home, participants will be asked to wear a portable sleep study device overnight, to perform home sleep study. Although these devices are noninvasive and safe, they are not routinely used as a standard of care in the pregnant patient population.
Primary outcome measures
- Areas Under the Curve (AUC) [Time frame: One Day]
Secondary outcome measures (1)
- The inter-rater reliability for measuring each one of the airway parameters [Time frame: One Day]
Eligibility criteria
\- Inclusion criteria
- Pregnant women ≥ 18 years of age
- at > 20 weeks of gestation
- ASA physical status I - IV
- With untreated recently diagnosed (within the previous 12 months) OSA or at high risk of OSA will be eligible for inclusion.
High risk of OSA will be defined as outlined by Facco et al. and recommended by recently updated guidelines (i.e., score ≥ 75) (8).
\- Exclusion criteria i) past history of oral, head or neck surgery (e.g., corrective surgery for OSA) ii) active head and neck disease (e.g., cancer, infection, radiotherapy etc.) iii) inability to perform HST per instruction iv) patients with diagnosed OSA on CPAP therapy
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
Study locations
Canada · 1 center
- Toronto Western Hospital (TWH)-University Health Network (UHN) — Toronto
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06776237 · 23-5451