OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA PI) of hypertensive pregnancies is higher than that of normal pregnancies in the puerperium, as well as in the antepartum period. METHODS The UtA PI was measured in hypertensive (group 1) and normal pregnancies (group 2) during antepartum, immediate postpartum or late postpartum periods. Using the transvaginal approach...

BACKGROUND Cyclic endometrial neoangiogenesis contributes to changes in local vascular patterns and is amenable to non-invasive assessment with Doppler sonography. We hypothesize that the uterine artery (UtA) impedance, measured by its pulsatility index (PI), exhibits a regular pattern during the normal menstrual cycle. Therefore, the main study objective was to derive normative new day-cycle-b...

OBJECTIVES To compare the feasibility of two transabdominal approaches for performing first-trimester uterine artery (UtA) Doppler and to evaluate the correlation with pulsatility index (PI) in the second trimester. METHODS This was a prospective longitudinal Doppler study of the uterine arteries at 11-13 and 21-22 weeks' gestation. Transabdominal ultrasound and color Doppler were used to mea...

OBJECTIVES To examine the performance of screening for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy by a combination of the maternal factor-derived a-priori risk with the uterine artery (UtA) pulsatility index (PI) and to determine whether it is best in such screening to use the mean PI of the two arteries, the highest PI or the lowest PI. METHODS This was a prospective screening study for pre-eclamps...

Evolutionary trade-offs required for bipedalism and brain expansion influence the pregnancy rise in uterine artery (UtA) blood flow and, in turn, reproductive success. We consider the importance of UtA blood flow by reviewing its determinants and presenting data from 191 normotensive (normal, n = 125) or hypertensive (preeclampsia (PE) or gestational hypertension (GH), n = 29) Andean residents ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Periconceptional folate has a preventive effect not only on neural tube defects, but possibly also on other birth defects such as urinary tract anomalies (UTA), orofacial clefts and conotruncal heart defects. Folate metabolism gene variants are therefore being investigated as potential susceptibility factors. METHODS We assessed the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the distribution of uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA-PI) at 12, 22, 32 and 36 weeks' gestation in singleton pregnancies which develop pre-eclampsia (PE) and examine the performance of this biomarker in screening for PE. METHODS UtA-PI was measured in 92 712 singleton pregnancies at 11-13 weeks, in 67 605 cases at 19-24 weeks, in 31 741 at 30-34 weeks and in 5523 at 3...

The aim of this study was to construct reference ranges for the uterine artery (UtA) mean pulsatility (PI) and resistance (RI) indices from 1-8 weeks postpartum. A prospective, cross-sectional, and observational study was performed with 320 healthy women from week 1 through week 8 postpartum. UtAs were examined transvaginally using colour and pulsed Doppler imaging, and the means of the right a...

OBJECTIVES To examine the relationship between low maternal serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA-PI) at 11+0 to 13+6 weeks with subsequent development of pre-eclampsia (PE). METHODS UtA-PI and serum PAPP-A were measured in women attending for routine care at 11+0 to 13+6 weeks of gestation. In the population, 156 (1.9%) women developed...