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Assessment of Maternal Vascular Remodeling During Pregnancy in the Mouse Uterus
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Published on: December 5, 2015

Physiology of normal pregnancy

Asha N Chesnutt1

  • 1Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, The Oregon Clinic, 507 NE 47th Avenue, Portland, OR 97213, USA. achesnutt@orclinic.com

Critical Care Clinics
|September 25, 2004
PubMed

The pregnant patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) poses many challenges. Physicians and nurses need to understand the basic concepts of maternal physiology and fetal physiology. The physicians must care for the mother and consider the potential adverse effects that diagnostic and therapeutic interventions might have on the fetus. This article focuses primarily on the normal pregnant state with appropriate references to how pregnancy may affect the patient in specific circumstances relating to the ICU. The physiologic adaptation of the major organs to the pregnant state should be familiar to ICU physicians.

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