Maternal and Fetal Hemodynamic Effects of Nifedipine in Normotensive Pregnant Women

Results: Umbilical PI Z-scores were significantly correlated with centiles of birthweight in the total of women (r=0.195 p= −0.015). When accoranalyzing data separately this correlation was maintained being even higher in women with gestational diabetes (r= −0.251 p =0.007) but it was not significant in women with pre-gestational diabetes (r=0.000 p=1.00). Uterine artery PI were available in 43 cases (20 pre-gestational and 23 gestational diabetes). The correlation between uterine artery PI Z-scores and the centiles of birthweight was of borderline significance (r= −0.286 p=0.063). In women with gestational diabetes correlations were not significant (r = −0.038 p=0.86). In women with pre-gestational diabetes there was a statistically significant correlation (r=0.533 p=0.016). A backward multivariate linear regression analysis showed that in pregestational diabetes the predictive model on birthweight included both first trimester HbA1c levels and uterine artery Z-scores as independent predictors of birthweight (R=0.75 R2=0.57 p=0.03). However, neither umbilical nor uterine artery PI was able to distinguish between macrosomic or LGA newborns and normal weighted babies. Conclusions: Placental perfusion influence significantly birthweight in pregnancies with diabetes mellitus but it is unlikely these Doppler indices are useful to predict macrosomia.