Effect of maternal oxygen inhalation on uterine and fetal circulation in intrauterine retardation and its prognostic value

: In 15 cases of singleton pregnancies with a sonographically supported diagnosis of intra-uterine growth retardation, the effects of maternal oxygen inhalation on uterine and feto-placental circulation have been investigated. For this purpose, the resistance and pulsitility indices (RI and PI) were measured in uterine artery placental site and uterine artery non-placental site, in the umbilical artery, in the descending thoracic aorta and in the median cerebral artery immediately before and after a half-hour oxygen inhalation in each of these IUR pregnancies. The median PI of uterine artery placental site decreased from 0.90 to 0.82 after oxygen inhalation, that of uterine artery non-placental site dropped significantly from 1.26 to 0.75 (p less than 0.05). The number of pathological findings in uterine artery non-placental site was significantly reduced (p less than 0.01). The median RI of the umbilical artery showed a minor decrease. Pathological perfusion in the umbilical artery was not noticeably affected either. The pathological median RI of the descending thoracic aorta was clearly reduced from 1.0 to 0.93. The median RI of the median cerebral artery showed a significant increase from 0.78 to 0.84 (p less than 0.05). The number of pathological findings was reduced by 50%. Compared with only two vessel indices (uterine artery non-placental site, umbilical artery) prior to oxygen inhalation, there was a significant correlation of all vessel indices with subsequent birth weight after oxygen inhalation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)