Doppler Assessment of Uterine Blood Flow in Pre-eclampsia: A Review

Abstract

Doppler ultrasonography plays an ever-increasing role in obstetric imaging. Although commonly purported to assess blood flow, most studies in this area report purely on velocimetric parameters, rather than true volumetric flow. This review article highlights the physiological importance of this distinction, and reports on a literature review of uterine artery Doppler interrogation in the context of pre-eclampsia, which identified only four original research papers that attempted to assess blood flow. Attention is needed for true volumetric flow assessment in pre-eclampsia research, which may permit a more complete conceptualisation of the pathogenesis and haemodynamic consequences of this condition.

• Doppler
• haemodynamics
• pre-eclampsia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Dr Ahmed Al-Amin for his assistance in procuring figures one and two. Institutional human research ethics committee approval was not required for this paper. Written consent was obtained from the patients whose ultrasound examinations generated figures one and two.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors have no competing or conflicting interests to declare. SCK is supported by a Postgraduate Scholarship from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

Supplementary material available online.

Supplemental Table S1.