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Pulse wave analysis in normal pregnancy: a prospective longitudinal study.

Khalil, A; Jauniaux, E; Cooper, D; Harrington, K (2009) Pulse wave analysis in normal pregnancy: a prospective longitudinal study. PLoS One, 4 (7). e6134 (1)- e6134 (7). ISSN 1932-6203 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006134
SGUL Authors: Khalil, Asma

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Abstract

Background: Outside pregnancy, arterial pulse wave analysis provides valuable information in hypertension and vascular disease. Studies in pregnancy using this technique show that vascular stiffness is raised in women with established preeclampsia. We aimed to establish normal ranges for parameters of pulse wave analysis in normal pregnancy and to compare different ethnic groups. Methodology/Principal Findings: This prospective study was conducted at The Homerton University Hospital, London between January 2006 and March 2007. Using applanation tonometry, the radial artery pulse waveform was recorded and the aortic waveform derived. Augmentation pressure (AP) and Augmentation Index at heart rate 75/min (AIx-75), measures of arterial stiffness, were calculated. We recruited 665 women with singleton pregnancies. Women who developed preeclampsia (n = 24, 3.6%) or gestational hypertension (n = 36, 5.4%) were excluded. We also excluded 47 women with other pregnancy complications or incomplete follow-up, leaving 541 healthy normotensive pregnant women for subsequent analysis. In the overall group of 541 women, there were no significant changes in AP or AIx-75 as pregnancy progressed. In 45 women followed longitudinally, AP and AIx-75 fell significantly from the first to the second trimester, then rose again in the third (P,0.001). The two main ethnic groups represented were Caucasian (n = 229) and Afrocaribbean (n = 216). There were no significant differences in AP or AIx-75 in any trimester between these two ethnic groups. Conclusions: This study is the largest to date of pulse wave analysis in normal pregnancy, the first to report on a subset of women studied longitudinally, and the first to investigate the effect of ethnicity. These data provide the foundation for further investigation into the potential role of this technique in vascular disorders in pregnancy.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright: 2009 Khalil et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords: Arteries, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Pregnancy, Prospective Studies, General Science & Technology, MD Multidisciplinary
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute (MCS)
Academic Structure > Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute (MCS) > Vascular (INCCVA)
Journal or Publication Title: PLoS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
Related URLs:
Dates:
DateEvent
3 July 2009Published
PubMed ID: 19578538
Web of Science ID: 19578538
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/107067
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006134

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