The effect of coronavirus infection (COVID19) on fetomaternal blood flow at term

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate maternal and fetal blood flow parameters of term pregnant women who had recovered from COVID-19 during pregnancy.Material and Methods: The study was conducted on 100 term pregnant women followed at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Health Sciences, Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey. All of these pregnant women agreed to participate in the study. Two groups were formed. Patients with a term pregnancy who had a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection at any week of pregnancy, who later recovered, were included in the study group (Group 1). The control group (Group 2) consisted of 50 healthy term pregnant women. Smokers, alcohol users, multiple pregnancies, complicated pregnancies (such as preeclampsia, fetal malformation, gestational diabetes, placenta previa), and those with a pregnancy below 37 weeks were not included. First, a routine ultrasound examination was performed on all pregnant women. Then, the umbilical artery, uterine artery, and middle cerebral artery pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), and systole/diastole ratios (S/D) were recorded using Doppler ultrasonography. Obtained data and results were compared between groups using the independent T-test.Results: Demographic characteristics of the groups were similar. There was no difference between the groups in terms of maternal and fetal blood flow parameters.Discussion: In this current study, fetal and maternal blood flow parameters of term pregnant women who recovered and did not have coronavirus infection during pregnancy were compared. The uterine, umbilical and mid cerebral artery blood flow parameters of the participants were observed to be similar.