Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 16, Issue 5 359-364, Copyright © 1997 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Changes in umbilical artery, middle cerebral artery, and aorta blood flow Doppler waveform pulsatility indices after funisocentesis
Y. Chitrit, P. Caubel, M. C. Boulanger, A. L. Schwinte, F. Baledent, D. Lusina and M. Ter Sakarian
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Centre Hospitalier, General R. Ballanger, Aulnysous-Bois, France.
This study evaluates the effect of funisocentesis on umbilical artery,
fetal cerebral artery, and aortic circulation. The pulsatility index in the
umbilical artery, fetal middle cerebral artery, and descending aorta was
measured by pulsed Doppler ultrasonography before and after 41 diagnostic
funisocenteses. Percutaneous umbilical artery blood sampling was associated
with a significant decrease in umbilical artery pulsatility index (mean
-0.132, standard deviation 0.259, P = 0.002) and in middle cerebral artery
pulsatility index (mean -0.143, standard deviation 0.260, P = 0.001). The
decline in resistance to flow of the umbilical artery (r = 0.340, P =
0.029) and middle cerebral artery (r = 0.457, P = 0.002) was correlated
with gestational age at sampling. These findings suggest that alterations
in the waveforms from both the umbilical and the fetal cerebral
circulations can be induced by fetal blood sampling.
