P13.01: Hemodynamic pattern of ophthalmic artery in pregnant women with appropriate‐for‐gestational‐age fetuses and fetal growth restriction: Doppler study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare ophthalmic artery (OA) Doppler indexes between normotensive pregnant women carrying appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) fetuses, and those with fetal growth restriction (FGR). A cross-sectional study with 54 normotensive women after 32 weeks gestation, 28 with FGR (weight prediction below 10th percentile for gestational age, Hadlock et al.) and 16 carrying AGA fetuses (weight prediction between 10th and 90th percentile for gestational age, Hadlock et al.) were undertaken. Color Doppler was used to obtain the OA Doppler waveform, with insonation angle less than 20 degrees, 50 Hz filter, pulse repetition frequency of 125 kHz and 2 mm sample volume. The following Doppler parameters were assessed: pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), peak systolic velocity (PSV), peak diastolic velocity (PDV), end-diastolic velocity (EDV) and peak ratio (PR), mean peak velocity. The Mann-Whitney or T-student test was used to assess the artery Doppler indexes correlation between pregnant women with AGA fetuses and those with FGR. A level of p < 0.05 was considered significant. Average PI, RI, PSV, PDV, EDV and PR in pregnant women with FGR were 1.7 ± 0.40; 0.76 ± 0.06; 28,4 ± 9.3; 17.3 ± 6.8; 6.90 ± 2.60 and 0.59 ± 0.13, respectively. Average PI, RI, PSV, PDV, EDV e PR in pregnant women with AGA fetuses were 2.2 ± 0.60; 0.81 ± 0.06; 33.5 ± 9.0; 15.8 ± 4.6; 6.10 ± 2.00 and 0.47 ± 0.06, respectively. The ophthalmic artery IP and IR were significantly lower in pregnant women with FGR than in pregnant women with AGA fetuses. The ophthalmic artery PR in pregnant women with FGR was significantly higher than in pregnant women with AGA fetuses. The indexes PSV (P = 0.172), PDV (P = 0.518) and EDV(P = 0.323), did not show significant correlations between the groups. Pregnant women with FGR showed lower vascular resistance in OA. The use of dopplervelocimetry may improve the follow up of maternal hemodynamic profile in pregnancies affected by fetal growth restriction.