Association between maternal vascular murmur and the small‐for‐gestational‐age fetus with abnormal umbilical artery Doppler flow

Abstract

Maternal vascular murmurs are significantly associated with fetal growth restriction, but not with SGA per se.

Biosensor for Detecting Fetal Growth Restriction in a Low-Resource Setting

“…Inclusion criteria for the sub-study were singleton-and ultrasound-dated pregnancy before 21 weeks of pregnancy. Exclusion criteria were missing biosensor test and ultrasound at the same antenatal examination, biosensor test quality assessment score below 3 in a quality index ranging 1-4, described in detail elsewhere [6][7][8], birth before full 37 weeks, major congenital malformations, stillbirth or missing BW. Of the 147 women included, 20 (14%) were excluded due to low quality assessment of the sound characteristics, and nine (6%) women were excluded due to clinical reasons whereof seven had missing clinical data, one preterm birth and one with major congenital malformations.…”

“…The vascular sound characteristics obtained by the biosensor can be segmented into different sound frequency spectrums for visual and automatically inspection. Hereby, contents will reveal cardiac valve sounds in one frequency spectrum (maternal and fetal), and local arterial pulse sounds in another frequency spectrum [6][7][8]. Empirical studies on partly occluded arteries, as in cases of coronary artery stenosis, show that acoustic turbulent blood flow appears in a distinct frequency spectrum > 200 Hz [9].…”

“…Recently, an acoustic approach for the identification of FGR secondary to placental dysfunction has been investigated, and found to be significantly associated with FGR, but not with small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses [6][7][8]. A biosensor consisting of wearable mini-microphones is patched wirelessly to the skin of the lower abdomen, medially to the uterine arteries for capturing maternal vascular sounds emanating locally from beneath the sensors.…”

Quality Assessment of Maternal and Fetal Cardiovascular Sounds Recorded From the Skin Near the Uterine Arteries During Pregnancy

“…The data in this study was obtained from a crosssectional study of women aged 18 years or older with a singleton pregnancy at 28 -41 weeks (median of 33 weeks), conducted at Regional Hospital Viborg, Denmark, between May 1st and August 1st, 2013 [5]. A set of 324 recordings was obtained from two microphones placed bilaterally on the abdomen of 90 pregnant women, with signal duration varying from 30 s to 180 s (median of 30 s), detailed in [5]. The women had body mass indices (BMI) of 26.1 ± 3.3 kg/m 2 , and maternal pulse of 80.0 ± 10.1 bpm.…”

“…Early intervention could reduce maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, and facilitate clinical decision-making before the onset of irreversible consequences to the fetus [2]. Automated cardiovascular auscultation of the pregnant abdomen in both audible and infrasonic frequencies is a non-invasive procedure for obtaining information on the maternal and fetal health, including blood flow to the placenta [3][4][5]. However, the quality of auscultation recordings is often compromised by artifacts from interference of respiration, from sounds of the digestive system, or from unrelated ambient sounds [3].…”