Evaluation of Umbilical artery Blood velocity in pregnancy Complicated by hypertension.

Abstract

Doppler sonography of umbilical artery is a useful tool in detecting fetal complication in pregnancies with hypertension. The aim of this study was to visualize the umbilical artery, measure the velocity of the umbilical artery and then compare Doppler findings of umbilical artery in patients with hypertension to those of normal pregnancies and to evaluate the diagnostic characteristics of these patients. A total of 40 cases of hypertensive and 20 uneventful pregnancies as a control group between 27 - 38 wks of gestation have been studied with color Doppler scanner with a 3.5 MHz curvilinear probe used for studying umbilical artery. The results of first Doppler examination have been taken into consideration for the study. the study conducted in Different hospitals in Khartoum state, specially the Soba hospital from January to May 2012. Data analyzed by using Microsoft excel. Ethical considered as no individual patient’s details have been throughout this study. The result shows that the mean resistive index RI , pulsatility index PI and Systole\Diastole ratio were significantly higher In hypertensive patients than control group. The cases with abnormal BP was 40 and normal 20 patient ,the incidence in percentage 65% for abnormal and 35% for normal. For PI above 1:00 considered abnormal, the study showed there was 51% abnormal and 49% normal PI. For S/D ratio above to 3:00 considered abnormal the study showed abnormal 42% and the normal 58%. For RI above to 0.7 considered abnormal the study shows abnormal 30% and the normal 70% . In conclusion Doppler indices seem to be more appropriate tools to evaluate the change in blood flow in the Umbilical cord during pregnancy .