Abstract

Background: The importance of establishing correlations between cardiac function (cardiac output and stroke volume) and total body water (TBW) content in normal and hypertensive pregnancy focuses primarily on their potential relevance in treatment. Total body water content and cardiac function were evaluated in 25 normotensive (N) and 22 gestational hypertensive (GH) pregnant women matched for age, gestational age, and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) during the third trimester of gestation.Material/Methods: Patients underwent maternal echocardiography, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and hematocrit (Hct) evaluation, and the water balance index (WBI), i.e. the ratio of total body water to hematocrit, was computed. Hematocrit showed significantly lower values in normal than in GH women (31.9±2.2% vs. 36.2±2.5%; p

Keywords: Adaptation, Physiological, Atrial Function, Left, Body Water, Echocardiography, Heart Function Tests, Hematocrit, Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced - physiopathology, Pregnancy, Statistics, Systole - physiology, Adaptation, Physiological, Atrial Function, Left, Body Water, Echocardiography, Heart Function Tests, Hematocrit, Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced - physiopathology, Pregnancy, Statistics as Topic, Systole - physiology