Peripheral pulse pressure patterns in pregnancy hypertension.

Maternal heart rate and pulse pressure patterns were examined in 30 hypertensive pregnant women using noninvasive methodology described previously. "Narrow" and "wide" pulse patterns were identified. Narrow cutaneous pulse pressure patterns, which are thought to be caused by vasoconstriction, were associated with lower birth weight infants (1870 +/- 983 versus 3225 +/- 838 g; P less than .001) and earlier deliveries (34.2 +/- 5.2 versus 37.9 +/- 2.8 weeks; P less than .05). The data suggest that these adjunctive maternal cardiovascular-system evaluation techniques may be useful in identifying patients at risk of adverse perinatal outcome by detecting vasospasm of the peripheral microcirculation.