Cerebral Doppler blood flow velocimetry and central hemodynamics in the ovine fetus during hypoxemia-acidemia.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of hypocapnic hypoxia, acidemia and the combination of hypoxia/acidemia on blood flow velocity variables in the fetal cerebral circulation. Chronically instrumented fetal sheep were used and the ewes were induced to breathe a hypoxic gas mixture for about 90 min. This caused an initial period of hypoxemia followed by a period of mixed hypoxemia/acidemia. When the ewe was reoxygenated, the fetus experienced a period of normoxic acidemia. The fetal cerebral circulation was assessed by recording Doppler blood flow velocity waveform variables in a cerebral vessel and the umbilical artery, using standard ultrasound equipment. External carotid artery blood flow was maintained during hypoxic and hypoxic/acidotic periods despite a fall in cardiac output. In the cerebral vessel, mean maximum velocity (time-averaged maximum velocity), minimum diastolic velocity and maximum systolic velocity manifested increases during hypoxic and hypoxic-acidotic periods, but pulsatility index did not change due to the effect of reduced heart rate on pulsatility index. Umbilical artery pulsatility index increased in the hypoxic and hypoxic-acidotic periods, despite unchanged mean maximum velocity, minimum diastolic velocity and maximum systolic velocity. With acute hemodynamic changes, the measurement of pulsatility index can yield misleading results. For clinical and experimental research on the fetal cerebral circulation, more attention should be paid to the individual Doppler variables, especially to the mean maximum velocity, than to the pulsatility index alone. Changes in mean maximum velocity recorded from the cerebral artery seem to reflect changes in the cerebral arterial flow.