Maternal echocardiography in hypertensive pregnancies.

Echocardiographic hemodynamic and left ventricular parameters were determined in 14 normotensive and 18 hypertensive women during the last trimester of pregnancy. The hypertensive patients had significantly higher mean values of total peripheral resistance (p less than 0.001), maximum velocity of posterior wall motion (p less than 0.05), mean velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (p less than 0.01) and percent fiber shortening of left ventricular diameter (p less than 0.05). The mean values for heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, cardiac index, left ventricular posterior wall thickness and septal thickness did not differ significantly in both groups. These results reflect increased cardiac contractility related to elevated peripheral vascular resistance in subjects with pregnancy-induced hypertension.