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Study by Doppler Ultrasonography of the Effect of Smoking on the Fetal and Maternal Circulations
Author(s) -
EXOJO L. FITE,
PONS P. J. TORRES I,
VERET A. RODRIGUEZ,
BRU C.,
MERLO J. GONZALEZ
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.1990.tb00407.x
Subject(s) - umbilical artery , medicine , vasoconstriction , fetus , vascular resistance , in utero , pregnancy , gestation , placenta , cerebral arteries , ultrasonography , obstetrics , duplex ultrasonography , cardiology , hemodynamics , vascular disease , surgery , biology , genetics
Forty healthy pregnant women with a normal pregnancy between 24 and 36 weeks of gestation and who were habitual smokers were studied. The changes produced by cigarette smoking on fetal‐maternal circulation were observed using Doppler ultrasonography (Duplex scanning). Twenty minutes after smoking the resistance index in different vascular territories and the fetal and maternal heart rates were measured. Statistically significant increases in heart rates as well as in the resistance index of the umbilical and anterior cerebral arteries were obtained; these could be due to an increase in the vascular resistance of the placenta (umbilical arteries) or to a vasoconstriction in these vessels (umbilical and cerebral). No increase in the resistance index in the uterine artery suggesting vasoconstriction with decreased utero‐placental flow was observed.