Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Abnormally pulsatile umbilical artery (UA) Doppler waveforms (characterized through the UA pulsatility index) are widely used as a screening tool to detect intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) due to placental disease. However, the sensitivity of UA Doppler in detecting IUGR is quite poor. One explanation for this is that the pulsatility in the UA consists of intermixed cardiac and placental signals. Here, we overcome this limitation with a new ultrasound approach in which the observed UA Doppler waveforms are decomposed into forward propagating waves (developed by the fetal heart) and reverse propagating waves reflected back from the placental circulation. A proof-of -principle experiment was conducted in mice. Results show that the patterns of reflected waves in the UA parallel the variations in the downstream fetoplacental morphology and are more sensitive to these variations than the UA pulsatility index. Thus, this methodology has the potential to improve the detection of placental-mediated IUGR.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Anum Rahman
Language: English
Subfield: Obstetrics and Gynecology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2612797097