None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of suffering and death in pregnant women. Diseases that are known to affect the heart and circulation in pregnant women include high blood pressure diseases such as preeclampsia, and infective diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). For some women the cardiovascular disease occurs before pregnancy and in others heart disease may occur during pregnancy. Pregnancy itself causes changes in the heart and circulation and therefore it is sometimes it difficult to identify cardiac disease, using routine monitoring techniques, in pregnant women due to these normal changes of pregnancy. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and ophthalmic artery Doppler are ultrasound techniques that can examine a pregnant woman's heart and also her eye to help us understand the changes that occur in these diseases. The aim of this study is to examine women with preeclampsia, women with HIV and women who are critically unwell, as well as healthy pregnant women, using these techniques to understand better the changes that occur when compared with healthy pregnant women.
Interventions
Resting blood pressure measurements, resting ECG, resting standardised transthoracic echocardiography scan, resting left eye ophthalmic artery Doppler scanning measured at a single time point at specific to the study groups;
-at diagnosis of preeclampsia prior to treatment
-at diagnosis of preeclampsia after treatment with magnesium sulphate
-at >36 completed weeks in women with HIV
-at any gestation greater than 19 completed weeks in healthy pregnant women
-at the time of haemodynamic instabili
Resting blood pressure measurements, resting ECG, resting standardised transthoracic echocardiography scan, resting left eye ophthalmic artery Doppler scanning measured at a single time point at specific to the study groups; -at diagnosis of preeclampsia prior to treatment -at diagnosis of preeclampsia after treatment with magnesium sulphate -at >36 completed weeks in women with HIV -at any gestation greater than 19 completed weeks in healthy pregnant women -at the time of haemodynamic instability in pregnant women of any gestation
Sponsors
University of Cape Town
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Healthy term and preterm pregnant women Women with term and preterm preeclampsia Term pregnant women with HIV Pregnant women with haemodynamic instability
Exclusion criteria
current administration of vasoactive drugs including salbutamol and thyroxine, pre-existing or gestational diabetes, known cardiac disease including pre-existing or gestational hypertension, multiple pregnancy, a known uterine abnormality or abnormal placentation, any woman in labour, inability to consent to the study.
Outcome results
None listed