Reference Ranges for Uterine Artery Pulsatility Index during the Menstrual Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119103
• Publication Date: 2015-03-05T19:05:13Z
• Authors: Luís Guedes-Martins; Rita Gaio; Joaquim Saraiva; Sofia Cerdeira; Liliana Matos; Elisabete Silva; Filipe Macedo; Henrique Almeida
• Keywords: Pulsatility index; Parity (physics)

Cyclic endometrial neoangiogenesis contributes to changes in local vascular patterns and is amenable non-invasive assessment with Doppler sonography. We hypothesize that the uterine artery (UtA) impedance, measured by its pulsatility index (PI), exhibits a regular pattern during normal menstrual cycle. Therefore, main study objective was derive normative new day-cycle-based reference ranges for UtA-PI entire cycle from days 1 34 according isolated time effect potential confounders such as age parity.From January 2009 December 2012, cross-sectional of 1,821 healthy women undergoing routine gynaecological ultrasound performed. The flow right left studied transvaginally colour pulsed imaging. mean values presence or absence bilateral protodiastolic notch were recorded. Reference intervals PI day generated classical linear regression.The majority patients (97.5%) presented unilateral UtA notches. crude 5th, 50th, 95th percentile curves at 1-34 derived. In all curves, progressive significant decrease occurred first 13 days, followed an increase recovery UtA-PI. adjusted effects parity also obtained. These two conditions approximately identical cycle, except small but reductions temporal extremes.The median, percentiles third recover their initial last thirds rates depend significantly on parity.