Control de calidad de la translucencia nucal. Experiencia en 6 centros del ámbito de primaria

Objective

To apply quality control to nuchal translucency (NT) measurements in the scans performed in two primary care health regions (Vallès and Centre de Catalunya) in Catalonia, Spain.

Subjects and methods

We evaluated 7,386 TN measured in 2009 in the prenatal care centers of two health areas (Vallès and Centre de Catalunya) of the Catalan health service. We applied two methods of quality control: the method proposed by the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) and that proposed by the Women and Infants’ Hospital, Rhode Island (WIHRI) group.

Results

The FMF method showed that 68% of sonographists underestimated NT when the 50^th percentile was assessed. For the 95^th and 5^th percentiles, the underestimation rates were 89% and 32%, respectively. When the WIHRI method was applied to the overall series, all parameters were within the normal range. Results by individual sonographists showed that 43% underestimated the median value of the multiple of the median (MoM) measurements.

Conclusions

NT quality control was not useful when applied to the entire series. Instead, its application in individual sonographists allows those that significantly deviate from the expected values to be identified and corrections to be proposed.