Ophthalmic artery velocimetry in preeclampsia

Our objective was to compare ophthalmic artery pulsatility index values from normal pregnant women with those from preeclampsia patients. The ophthalmic artery of 20 normotensive pregnant women, 7 mildly preeclamptic and 2 severely preeclamptic patients was studied once with color Doppler flow imaging and pulsed Doppler ultrasonography after 32 weeks gestation. The peak systolic velocity [49.0 +/- 11.8 (SD) cm/s] in mild preeclampsia was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than that (32.1 +/- 9.5 cm/s) in normotensive pregnant women, as were the end-diastolic velocity (14.1 +/- 7.7 cm/s vs. 3.7 +/- 1.4 cm/s, p < 0.0001) and time-averaged mean peak velocity (24.4 +/- 10.2 cm/s vs. 10.5 +/- 2.9 cm/s, p < 0.0001). The pulsatility index (1.58 +/- 0.47) in mild preeclampsia was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) than that (2.75 +/- 0.66) in normotensive pregnant women. In the 2 cases of severe preeclampsia, pulsatility index values (case 1: 1.86; case 2: 2.44) in the late stage of the disease process were significantly higher than those (case 1: 1.19; case 2: 1.20) in the early stage. We conclude that mild preeclampsia was associated with a significant decrease in ophthalmic artery vascular resistance, whereas ophthalmic artery vascular resistance in severe preeclampsia increased as the disease process advanced. However, in view of the small number of severe preeclamptic patients, these observations must be considered preliminary.