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Intestinal Hyperechogenicity Confirmed by Evaluation of Gray Spectra

NCT07039721 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2025-09-18

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Hyperechoic bowel is an ultrasound anomaly observed in screening and diagnostic ultrasound, and associated with various fetal pathologies including cystic fibrosis, chromosomal abnormalities, maternal-fetal infections (notably Cytomegalovirus CMV) and intrauterine growth retardation. Suspicion of hyperechogenic intestines in a fetus during a screening ultrasound leads to referral of the mother to a specialized antenatal diagnostic consultation. If the diagnosis is confirmed, this may lead to further investigations, including genetic analyses, which are costly for the healthcare system. However, many of the patients referred after a screening examination for this reason actually have their diagnosis invalidated during the specialized consultation. These "false alarms" lead to an overload of specialist consultations, and are a source of concern for couples.

. However, many of the patients referred after a screening examination for this reason actually have their diagnosis invalidated during the specialist consultation. These "false alarms" lead to an overload of specialist consultations, and are a source of concern for couples.

The diagnosis of intestinal hyperechogenicity is difficult because it is based on the sonographer's subjective impression, with a 3-grade gradation according to the echogenicity of the intestine in relation to the bone (Slotnick and Abuhamad. 1996). According to this method, the evaluation is carried out by progressively decreasing the gain applied to the image: if the hyperechoic bowel disappears before the iliac bone, it's a grade 1; if the bowel and iliac bone disappear at the same time, it's a grade 2; and finally if the bowel is still visible on the image while the iliac bone has disappeared, it's a grade 3.

In addition to gain, which, if too high, tends to overestimate the diagnosis of hyperechoic bowel, other ultrasound parameters can vary the subjective impression of bowel echogenicity, such as the use of high-frequency probes or the application of harmonics, which also lead to overdiagnosis (Lee and Cho. 2003).

Conditions

  • Echogenicity
  • Intestinal Foetus

Interventions

OTHER

Evaluation of echogenicity

Patients ongoing a routine 2nd or 3rd trimester ultrasound will have an extra 5 minutes of ultrasound with a specific intestinal setting

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hospices Civils de Lyon

    lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-10-01
Primary Completion
2026-01-01
Completion
2026-01-01

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07039721 on ClinicalTrials.gov