A planned prospective study, currently applying for funding. We aim to test whether medical treatment of missed abortion/blighted ovum can be improved. We need an interested and friendly Danish collaborator who can supervise the study in their department. This study would be ideal in a setting where women have 1st trimester ultrasound screenings and there is a volume of either anembryonic pregnancies (‘blighted ovum’) or with an embryo or fetus present, but without cardiac activity and the patient has experienced no symptoms (‘silent’, ’missed’ or ‘delayed abortion’) discovered with this routine. Women who have started to bleed (incomplete abortion) are not eligible for study inclusion.

We should know before the summer whether we have funding and if we can initiate the study. The planned study will take place in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Austria – hopefully in Denmark as well - and is expected to be completed in 2018. The project leaders for each country will apply for the relevant planning permissions (e.g. medical ethics, medicines agency and data protection records) in their countries prior to patient recruitment. We therefore need someone who is not only interested and friendly, but who is experienced with conducting randomised trials and has resources at their department to help them!

Please e-mail Kevin Oppegaard kevinsunde@hotmail.com for further details or phone +47 986 444 05 for a chat. Check out our recent study, published in The Lancet!

Further reading: the essay published in The Lancet January 17 on a personal experience of missed abortion. The improvement of diagnosis and treatment is needed worldwide!

Kristina Gemzell-Danielsson
Jens A. Guðmundsson
Oskari Heikinheimo
Christian Fiala
Kevin Sunde Oppegaard