Cardiac ventricular performance in the appropriate- for-gestational age and small-for-gestational age fetus: relation to regional cardiac non-uniformity and peripheral resistance.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between parameters of diastolic function, loading conditions and remodeling of the left ventricle in the appropriate-for-gestational age and small-for-gestational age fetus.

Methods: Two-dimensional echocardiographic left ventricular images were digitized in 24 appropriate-for-gestational age and 14 small-for-gestational age fetuses. The maximal short axis and long axis were measured.

Assessment of left ventricular filling in normally grown fetuses, growth-restricted fetuses and fetuses of diabetic mothers.

Objective: To determine fetal left ventricular diastolic function as expressed by normalized left ventricular filling rate integral as well as conventional indices of transmitral blood flow in appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA), small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and IDDM (insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus) fetuses during the third trimester of pregnancy.

Design: A cross-sectional study of fetal left ventricular filling using conventional parameters of transmitral blood flow.

Subjects: Twenty-five AGA fetuses (mean 32 weeks), 18 SGA fetuses (mean 32 weeks) and 15 fetuses associated with IDDM (mean 31 weeks).