Doppler Ultrasonography of Foetal Middle Cerebral and Umbilical Arteries in High Risk Pregnancy

Abstract
Background: Foetal hypoxemia is associated with in-creased impedance to flow in the umbilical artery (UA) and decreased impedance in the fetal middle cerebral artery (MCA).
Aim of Study: To evaluate Doppler of foetal Middle cerebral (MCA) and Umbilical (UMA) arteries in high risk pregnancies.
Patients and Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was carried on 100 patients at Menoufia university hospital in the period from March 2017 to Febraury 2018 using a 2-5MHz transabdominal probe (GE LOGIC p5 and GE LOGIC p7). The study including two groups, group (A) High risk group: Including 50 patients with pregnancy above 27 weeks presenting with high risk pregnancy, and group (B) control group: Including 50 patients with normal pregnancy above 27 weeks, Doppler examination for both MCA and UMA was done.
Results: Out of the fifty pregnant women in Group A, there were 18 cases with abnormal UMA Doppler, 14 cases with abnormal MCA Doppler indices and 10 cases with abnormal cerbroplacental (CPR ). For estimating the associ-ation between high risk pregnancy and resistive index ( RI ) and pulsatility index (PI) of both UMA and MCA for predicting foetal outcome, RI of UMA showed sensitivity and specificity of 70% and 60% and accuracy of 63% and MCA RI showed sensitivity of 74%, specificity of 48% and accuracy of 61%.
Conclusion: Doppler ultrasonography of foetal middle cerebral and umbilical arteries plays important role in high risk pregnancies and predicting foetal outcome.