Maternal blood haemostatic-fibrinolytic balance and intrauterine growth retardation.

In order to study the association between haemostatic-fibrinolytic balance during late pregnancy and retarded foetal growth, 22 mothers with suspected intrauterine growth retardation were studied by blood haematocrit and platelet count, plasma fibrinogen and serum fibrinogen degenerating products (FDP) in late pregnancy. Fifteen mothers with undisturbed foetal growth served as controls. No statistical differences could be found between these two groups of mothers in any of the studied blood parameters. It is thus concluded that a defect in the haemostatic-fibrinolytic balance seems not to play any very important role in the etiology of intrauterine growth retardation.