Cerebral circulation can be severely affected by preeclampsia. Researchers are not sure whether preeclampsia causes problems with cerebral autoregulation or if the issues are simply a precursor of preeclampsia. A clinical study into the potential predictive nature of cerebral autoregulation impairment in terms of preeclampsia was recently published in the journal Hypertension.
Researchers followed 72 women between 25 weeks and 28 weeks gestation. Twenty-six control women were also followed. Transfer function analysis and transcranial Doppler were used to measure cerebral autoregulation in the posterior cerebral artery and middle cerebral artery. Participants in the active and control groups were followed until six weeks postpartum.
Conclusion: DCA parameters were altered slightly in women with a previous medical history of preeclampsia, but DCA measurement differences were not clinically significant as a means of predicting preeclampsia.
Source: Janzarik WG, Ehlers E, Ehmann R, Gerds TA, Schork J, Mayer S, Gabriel B, Weiller C, Prömpeler H, Reinhard M. Dynamic Cerebral Autoregulation in Pregnancy and the Risk of Preeclampsia. Hypertension. 2013 Oct 7.
