CORRELATION BETWEEN MATERNAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC AND FETAL/ MATERNAL DOPPLER PARAMETERS

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Objective: To analyze maternal echocardiographic parameters and fetoplacental Doppler Şndings to show the relationship of each other in hypertensive and normal pregnancies.

Material & Method: In the study, 26 hypertensive pregnant women and 29 normotensive pregnant women underwent doppler study and maternal echocardiographic examination at 24th weeks and during the third trimester of gestation. Doppler study included assessment of uterine, umbilical and MCA flow patterns and echocardiographic examination include measurement of left ventricular, right atrial diameters, and interventricular septum thickness. Kolgmorov- Smirnov test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann- Whitney U tests are used for the statistical analysis where indicated.

Results: All hemodynamic properties of hypertensive patients other than maternal heart rate were statistically different compared to normal subjects. End-diastolic diameter and volume, stroke volume, cardiac output, left atrial diameter were lower in the hypertensive group, whereas end-systolic volume and diameter were higher. Altough not statistically signifi-cant, hypertensive women had smaller left ventricular mass and left ventricular septal tickness in diastole relative to control group. E/A ratio which is representative of the diastolic function significantly lower in hypertensive group. Linear regres-sion analysis revealed no correlation between Doppler and echocardiographic variables.

Conclusion: Hypertension in pregnancy was supposed to be due to placentation disorder. Because the effects of disordered placentation might be systemic it could be also the cause of cardiac maladaptation. So it has further decreased the placental perfusion and caused the bad prognosis. So we suppose that echocardiographic study may be useful to identify women who do not fully adapt to pregnancy.

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