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Abstract
Background: Pelvic pain is a common presenting complaint during the first trimester of pregnancy and may indicate a wide range of normal or pathological conditions. Early ultrasonographic evaluation is essential for accurate diagnosis and appropriate clinical management.
Objective: To assess pelvic pain during the first trimester of pregnancy using transabdominal ultrasonography and to determine the spectrum of associated ultrasonographic findings.
Materials and Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted over six months at DHQ Teaching Hospital Swabi and Iqra Memorial Diagnostic Center, Attock, Pakistan. A total of 99 pregnant women with confirmed pregnancies of ≤13 weeks were enrolled using convenience sampling. All participants underwent transabdominal ultrasonography with a 3.5 MHz probe. Clinical and ultrasonographic findings were recorded using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, and associations were assessed using the Chi-square test, with p<0.05 considered statistically significant.
Results: The mean maternal age was 28.20 ± 5.60 years, and the mean gestational age was 9.17 ± 2.14 weeks. Pelvic pain was reported by 78 (78.8%) participants. Normal intrauterine pregnancy was the most common ultrasonographic finding (56.6%), followed by missed abortion (8.1%), fibroid (7.1%), ectopic pregnancy (6.1%), and corpus luteal cyst (5.1%). Vaginal bleeding was significantly associated with pelvic pain (p=0.001), whereas fetal cardiac activity (p=0.06), blood pressure (p=0.12), and diabetes mellitus (p=0.24) showed no significant association.
Conclusion: Transabdominal ultrasonography is a valuable first-line imaging modality for assessing pelvic pain during the first trimester of pregnancy. It effectively identifies the underlying causes of pelvic pain and differentiates normal from abnormal gestations, facilitating timely diagnosis and appropriate clinical management.