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Maternal Central Blood Pressure Is Associated with Fetal Middle Cerebral Artery Dopplers

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Abstract

Cardiovascular adaptations to pregnancy involve physiological mechanisms that increase cardiac output, decrease total vascular resistance, and decrease both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP). These maternal hemodynamic changes modulate uteroplacental blood flow and fetal–placental Doppler indices. Our objective was to create maternal cardiac profiles of pregnant women using non-invasive measurements of central BP to identify changes in maternal–fetal hemodynamics as a surrogate to fetal status. This was a prospective cohort study of all singleton pregnancies in a perinatal referral center between January and April 2018. Central BP was measured non-invasively using the BP+ device. The BP+ device is a supra-systolic oscillometric central BP device, which measures BP waveforms peripherally and calculates central BP. We compared various BP+ values for peripheral BP with central BP and stratified by gestational age. We investigated the correlations between peripheral BP, central BP, estimated fetal weight (EFW), and the pulsatility indices (PI) of Doppler velocimetry and demonstrate that both central systolic and diastolic BP correlated to peripheral systolic and diastolic BP. Linear regression analysis confirmed that central BP predicts the middle cerebral artery (MCA) PI. The MCA PI correlated with EFW, specifically higher central systolic BP is associated with a lower MCA PI, implying a possible etiology of fetal brain shunting with poor placental perfusion. Future studies using predictors and markers of fetal outcomes from maternal cardiac parameters should consider maternal cardiovascular measurements to peripheral arterial BP.

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Author notes

  1. Allison Woods and Yalda Afshar are coauthors and contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Room 27-139 CHS, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1740, USA

    Allison Woods, Yalda Afshar, Ophelia Yin, William M. Jones, Brian J. Koos & Greggory DeVore

  2. Department of Urology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Lorna Kwan & Haoyue Zhang

Authors
  1. Allison Woods
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  2. Yalda Afshar
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  3. Ophelia Yin
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  4. William M. Jones
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  5. Lorna Kwan
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  6. Haoyue Zhang
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  7. Brian J. Koos
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  8. Greggory DeVore
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yalda Afshar.

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Woods, A., Afshar, Y., Yin, O. et al. Maternal Central Blood Pressure Is Associated with Fetal Middle Cerebral Artery Dopplers. Reprod. Sci. 27, 655–661 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-019-00069-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-019-00069-6

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