For nearly twenty years, a simple and fairly informative method has been used to study utero-placental blood circulation - fetal doppler. This method is based on the effect of changing the frequency of wave oscillations, discovered in the 19th century by the Austrian scientist H.I. Doppler, and is successfully used for perinatal observation of pregnant women.
What is fetal dopplerometry?
Doppler is a study of the speed and intensity of blood flow in the uterus of the mother, the umbilical cord and the vessels of the baby. The essence of this procedure is that the ultrasonic pulses sent by the sensor of the apparatus in the tissue are reflected from the erythrocytes moving inside the vessels and the signal is given in the form of ultrasound. Depending on the direction of movement and the speed of erythrocytes and, accordingly, the frequency of ultrasonic vibrations, the device registers the indicators of signals. Based on the analysis of these data, the frequency of circulation fluctuations in the mother-placenta-fetus system is determined.
This procedure differs from conventional ultrasound investigation in that the blood flow in the vessels on the monitor screen is reflected in different colors depending on the speed of movement. This feature requires more power ultrasound, but do not worry about whether the doppler is harmful to the fetus. This study is absolutely harmless both for the child and for the mother.
Indications for doplerometry of the fetus
Fetal ultrasound with doppler is prescribed for women, whose pregnancy is accompanied by such diseases as:
- gestosis;
- pyelonephritis;
- diabetes;
- incompatibility of mother and fetus by blood group;
- hypertension;
- collagen diseases.
In addition, the doppler for listening to the fetal heartbeat is indicated for abnormalities detected by ultrasound and fetal cardiotocography. These include:
- delay in fetal development;
- water scarcity ;
- premature ripening of the placenta;
- abnormal development of the umbilical cord;
- mismatch of fetal size during pregnancy;
- chromosomal diseases, or suspicion of them.
This study is carried out at the end of pregnancy for at least 20 weeks. After the procedure, the doctor gives the results with a transcript of the fetal doppler, indicating the norms or deviations in the development of pregnancy. This is a very important study with the help of which it is possible at early stages to identify various pathologies of the fetus or disorders in the mother's body.