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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Point of Care Transcranial Color-Coded Duplex Ultrasound of the Middle Cerebral Artery
Published on: August 9, 2024
Optimal interval between middle cerebral artery velocity measurements when monitoring pregnancies complicated by red
Jose L Bartha1, Sherif A Abdel-Fattah, Alyson Hunter
1Fetal Medicine Research Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. joseluis.bartha@uca.es
Objective:
To evaluate the optimal interval between middle cerebral artery (MCA) Doppler measurements when monitoring pregnancies complicated by red cell alloimmunization.
Methods:
Thirty-nine fetal blood samplings (FBS) performed on 24 pregnant women with red blood cell alloimmunization followed up using both MCA peak systolic velocity and time-averaged mean velocity measurements on weekly basis.
Results:
In total, 65.5 and 37.5% of women with moderate or severe fetal anemia had abnormal MCA Doppler values 1 and 2 weeks, respectively, before FBS was performed.
Conclusions:
A weekly assessment of women at risk for fetal anemia is optimal in most of the cases even though 35.5% of cases of moderate or severe fetal anemia are expected to have normal Doppler measurements the week before the decision of doing an FBS is made.
