Neurovascular coupling in pregnancy and the risk of preeclampsia.

Background And Purpose: This study investigated whether a short testing of neurovascular coupling during midterm pregnancy could identify women at risk for subsequent preeclampsia.

Methods: Transcranial Doppler sonography of the posterior cerebral artery during a brief visual stimulation was analyzed in 68 women at midterm pregnancy, the primary clinical end point was preeclampsia.

Results: Women with bilateral notching of the uterine arteries showed an exaggerated visually evoked blood flow increase and longer time-to-peak.

Dynamic cerebral autoregulation in pregnancy and the risk of preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia may affect severely the cerebral circulation leading to impairment of cerebral autoregulation, edema, and ischemia. It is not known whether impaired autoregulation occurs before the clinical onset of preeclampsia, and whether this can predict the occurrence of preeclampsia. Seventy-two women at 25 to 28 weeks of gestation were studied.