Pregnancy and delivery in woman with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: what we should know.

We report the observation of a 25-year-old pregnant patient of 39 weeks of amenorrhea proposed for elective cesarean section. This patient suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy since the age of 12. She has an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The peculiarities of the ICD in the parturient and the perioperative management of the patient are being reported in this paper.

Correlation between umbilical resistance index and fetal growth: Pilot study.

AIM: To investigate normal pregnancies to determine whether there is a relationship between umbilical resistance and fetal growth. METHODS: This prospective study was conducted in three academic departments. Third trimester routine prenatal ultrasonography was used to estimate fetal weight and measure umbilical resistance index (RI). After delivery the birthweight was noted, along with the time interval between the ultrasound and the delivery, and then the weekly weight gain was calculated. These data were then used to determine the relationship between fetal growth and umbilical artery RI. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 32 ± 4.8 years; mean RI was 0.62 ± 0.07, and mean weight gain was 186.4 ± 63.9 g/week. Mean percentage weight gain relative to the estimated weight on third trimester ultrasound was 8.86 ± 3.8% per week. There was an inverse linear relationship between umbilical artery RI and fetal growth: percentage of weight gained per week relative to the estimated weight during third trimester ultrasound (%/week) = [31.3 - (36.1 × RI)] × 100. CONCLUSION: In normal pregnancies there seems to be a linear relationship between umbilical RI measured at 31-34 weeks of gestation and average fetal growth in the third trimester. The greater the resistance index, the lower the weight gain.