Clinical presentation of hydatidiform mole in northern Italy: has it changed in the last 20 years?

Objective: This study was undertaken to evaluate whether the current clinical presentation of hydatidiform mole changed in the recent years compared with an historic group. Study Design: We retrieved 500 patients from our database. We compared the clinical presentation of 189 cases followed-up between 1992-2004 ("later" group) with that of a previous series of 311 patients ("earlier" group, 1970-1982). A Pearson χ² test was performed analyzing the following variables: uterine volume, ovarian cysts, vaginal bleeding, hyperemesis, preeclampsia, and maternal age; we considered P <.05 to be significant. Results: Uterine volume corrected for gestational age (P <.0001), vaginal bleeding (P <.0001) and presence of ovarian cysts (P = .03) were significantly predominant in the "earlier" group, whereas the incidence of preeclampsia and hyperemesis were not significantly different. Conclusions: The depiction of increased uterine volume, ovarian theca lutein cysts, and vaginal bleeding in hydatidiform mole at presentation is significantly less frequent since the extensive dissemination of ultrasound in obstetrics.