The effect of nuchal umbilical cord on fetal cardiac and cerebral circulation-cross-sectional study
-
Julia Murlewska
,
Oskar Sylwestrzak
Abstract
Objectives
The subject of our analysis is the influence of umbilical cord collision around the fetal neck on the fetal heart function and cerebral circulation.
Methods
Our study was carried out on a group of 115 fetuses from single pregnancies with physiological course, during the 15th to 40th week of pregnancy. In our analysis, we examined the following parameters: Tei index for right ventricle, Tei index for left ventricle with Tei index components: isovolumetric contraction time, isovolumetric relaxation time, ejection time and cardiothoracic area ratio, middle cerebral artery peak systolic velocity (PS MCA), middle cerebral artery pulsatility index (PI MCA). Gestational age in our study was: 28+2±34. The study group of patients with fetal umbilical cord around neck group (fUCAN) included 38 fetuses (20 males, 18 females). The control group of patients with no fetal umbilical cord around neck group (NfUCAN) included 77 fetuses (43 males, 34 females).
Results
In our study, we found no significant differences in the values obtained: Tei LV in fUCAN: 0.5±0.1 vs. in NfUCAN: 0.5±0.1; p=0.42), Tei RV in fUCAN: 0.5±0.2 vs. in NfUCAN: 0.4±0.1; (p=0.2). Tricuspid valve regurgitation-TR was observed with the following frequency: fUCAN: 7/38, 18% vs. NfUCAN: 13/77, 17%; p=0.8. MCA PS in study fUCAN group was significantly higher than in NfUCAN (40.2±11.5 vs. 32.5±9.5; p=0.003), although other hemodynamic and clinical variables did not differ between the study and control groups.
Conclusions
The fetal nuchal umbilical cord collision did not affect the fetal heart function expressed as Tei index, at the time of fetal heart examination (at mean gestational age 29+4 weeks). The fUCAN group presented elevated PS MCA, which was not related to other hemodynamic and clinical variables between the study and control groups.
Research funding: None declared.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: The study was accepted by the Bioethics Committee (RNN/270/20/KE).
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Original Articles – Fetus
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- Short Communication
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Review
- Neonatal lupus erythematosus – practical guidelines
- Original Articles – Obstetrics
- Optimal timing to screen for asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy: first vs. second trimester
- Amniotic fluid embolism – implementation of international diagnosis criteria and subsequent pregnancy recurrence risk
- COL1A1, COL4A3, TIMP2 and TGFB1 polymorphisms in cervical insufficiency
- Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of twin pregnancies – the role of maternal age
- Comparison of maternal third trimester hemodynamics between singleton pregnancy and twin pregnancy
- Daily monitoring of vaginal interleukin 6 as a predictor of intraamniotic inflammation after preterm premature rupture of membranes – a new method of sampling studied in a prospective multicenter trial
- Association between the number of pulls and adverse neonatal/maternal outcomes in vacuum-assisted delivery
- Original Articles – Fetus
- The effect of nuchal umbilical cord on fetal cardiac and cerebral circulation-cross-sectional study
- Recognition of facial expression of fetuses by artificial intelligence (AI)
- Correlation of first-trimester thymus size with chromosomal anomalies
- Fetal intracranial structures: differences in size according to sex
- Original Articles – Neonates
- Antenatal care and perinatal outcomes of asylum seeking women and their infants
- Maturation of the cardiac autonomic regulation system, as function of gestational age in a cohort of low risk preterm infants born between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation
- Short Communication
- The impact of transfers from neonatal intensive care to paediatric intensive care
- Letter to the Editor
- Differential microRNA expression in placentas of small-for-gestational age neonates with and without exposure to poor maternal gestational weight gain
