Sonographic Evaluation of the Splenic Length in Normal Pregnancy in a Tertiary Hospital in Southern Nigeria: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: The spleen is affected by the changes that occur in pregnancy. Ultrasound is the commonest imaging modality used in the evaluation of the abdominal organs in pregnancy; however, there is a paucity of information on the sonographic measurement of the splenic
length in normal pregnancy in our environment.

Aim: To establish sonographically the range of splenic length in normal pregnant women. Subjects and

Methods: A prospective descriptive cross sectional study of the sonographic measurements of the splenic length was performed on 150 healthy normal pregnant women correlating this with the body mass index, gestational age and parity. Data were analyzed using software SPSS version 15 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Correlations and variance between variables were calculated. P values 0.05 were considered as significant.

Results: A mean splenic length of 10.0 cm (SD) 1.8 throughout pregnancy was obtained with a range of 9.7-10.3 cm. The splenic length significantly correlated positively with the body mass index (r = 0.006, P < 0.01) but not with parity (r = 0.94, P < 0.01), and gestational age (r = 0.31, P < 0.01).

Conclusion: This study was able to establish a range of sonographic measurement of the splenic length for the locality.

Keywords: Normal pregnancy, Splenic length, South Nigeria, Ultrasound scan