Flow velocity waveforms of the vascular system in the anemic fetus before and after intravascular transfusion for severe red blood cell alloimmunization.
Sixteen intravascular transfusions were performed in 16 anemic human fetuses. To investigate the status of the vascular system with Doppler ultrasonography before and after correction of anemia, pulsatility index values were obtained for the flow velocity waveforms of the middle cerebral artery, internal carotid artery, anterior cerebral artery, thoracic aorta, abdominal aorta, renal artery, femoral artery, and umbilical artery before and the day after the correction of anemia. The fetuses were divided into two groups: (1) fetuses with a hematocrit level between 2 and 4 SDs below the normal mean value for gestational age and (2) fetuses with a hematocrit value less than 4 SDs below the normal mean value for gestational age. No significant differences were observed in the pulsatility index values of the vessels studied before and after correction of anemia in both groups of fetuses. These data suggest that the pulsatility index cannot be used as an indicator of fetal anemia at the hematocrit values studied.
PubMed Abstracts
PubMed Abstracts