3D Ultrasound and Color Doppler Studies of the Clitoris in Pregnant Women

Patients will be divided into two groups:

Group A: 30 pregnant women Group B: 30 non pregnant women as control group. Translabial ultrasound scanning will be performed for each woman with Sonographic measurements of the clitoral volume and labia minora thickness performed by using a RSP-16 multi frequency transducer. The transducer will be placed on the upper part of the vulva to assess the clitoris in a transverse section and on the labia majora for the sagittal view. To prevent artifacts, care will be taken to avoid excessive pressure on the clitoris. The clitoris was studied where the paired corpora join in a single body that projects into the glans. Volumes were measured by reporting length, width, and depth assuming the form to be an ellipsoid: V = π/6 × D1 × D2 × D3, where D1, D2, and D3 are the maximal longitudinal, anteroposterior, and transverse diameter, respectively. The same transducer will be sagittally placed on each labium major to measure labia minora thickness, ensuring that the minimum possible pressure is applied with the ultrasound probe on the skin.

Color Doppler ultrasonography will be used to identify, in a longitudinal plane, the dorsal clitoral artery, which is sampled on the outer surface of the clitoral body as previously described. With the same longitudinal approach, the terminal branch of the posterior labial artery (a branch of the internal pudendal artery) will be visualized posterolaterally to the labia majora (at about 2 cm from the clitoral hood).