[Prognostic value of the study of the blood flow in the fetal median cerebral artery].

Medial cerebral artery blood flow velocity waveforms were examined by pulsed Doppler ultrasound between the 28th and 41st week of pregnancy. It has been found that the vessel showed an increased resistance at the beginning of the third trimester, which significantly decreased till term. In intrauterin hypoxia the diastolic component of the blood flow velocity waveform of medial cerebral artery becomes stronger, marking the centralisation of the circulation. By their opinion the examination of the blood flow in the medial cerebral artery would be an effective additional possibility of the other intrauterine diagnostic methods (both the positive and the negative predictive value were higher than 90%) for the notifying the post-partal condition of the fetus.