Pre-eclampsia is a multisystem major cardiovascular disease of pregnancy with hypertension its main clinical manifestation. Acute pulmonary edema, which signifies severe disease, is a leading cause of death in women with pre-eclampsia, and is a frequent cause for admission to an intensive care unit
Outside pregnancy, transthoracic cardiac ultrasound (echocardiography) and lung ultrasound have become important diagnostic and monitoring tools in critically ill patients. Echocardiography allows a rapid and non-invasive assessment of myocardial contractility and preload, and lung ultrasound can be used to determine the amount of extravascular lung water (EVLW). In pregnancy, there is evidence of a good correlation between non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring by echocardiography and invasive monitoring using a pulmonary artery catheter. Previous studies have shown that invasive hemodynamic monitoring could facilitate fluid management in patients with PE. However, recent studies have examined the utility of echocardiography in combination with lung ultrasound for guiding fluid therapy in patients with severe PE. Thoracic fluid content (TFC) is one of the many variables measured by the ICON electrical cardiometry (EC) device (Osypka Medical, etc.). The ICON device is one relatively new proprietary implementation of impedance cardiography technology, which is also often called "thoracic electrical bio-impedance". Impedance cardiography is based on measuring the changes in total resistance of the thorax to electric current. The impedance (Zo) to electric current is determined by the resistance of different tissues such as bone, muscles, and fluids. The fluid compartment is considered the dynamic component that will cause short term changes in thoracic impedance. TFC is calculated as the reciprocal of the total thoracic impedance (1/ Zo) and is considered a numerical measure of total (intravascular and extravascular) thoracic fluid. Although TFC is a measure of both extra and intra-vascular thoracic fluid, the investigators hypothesized that it might provide an estimate of the increase in intrathoracic fluids such as to facilitate the risk of pulmonary edema.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
58
Ultrasound assessment will performed with parturient in the supine position using Mindray device (DC-N6, with a phased array transducer, model P4-2, 3-6 MHz). A C60x 5-2 MHz convex transducer will used for lung ultrasound (Mindray device (DC-N6, with a phased array transducer, model P4-2, 3-6 MHz).The Echo Comet Score (ECS) will obtained by the 28-rib interspaces technique dividing the chest wall in 12 areas on the left side (from the second to the fourth intercostal space) and 16 (from the second to the fifth intercostal space) on the right anterior and lateral hemithorax.
MHz cardiac transducer for echocardiography with two-dimensional, M-mode, color-flow, continuous, pulsed wave and tissue Doppler imaging.
detection of pulmonary edema
number of patients that will have pulmonary edema assessed by echo comet score by lung ultrasound (the sum of B-lines if yield more than 280 denoting extravascular fluid in the lung
Time frame: 4 days
Echocardiography
the increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressures measured by (E/E' ratio, E/A ratio) and left ventricular systolic function estimated by eyeball ejection fraction
Time frame: 4 days
Thoracic fluid content
the increase in thoracic fluid content measured by thoracic electrical bio-impedance device
Time frame: 4 days
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EC ICONR monitor (Osypka Medical, Inc., La Jolla, California and Berlin) will be applied to the patients through four ECG electrodes. The electrodes will be placed over the bare skin of patients at the following sites: (1) on the left neck below the ear; (2) directly superior to the midpoint of the left clavicle; (3) along the left mid-axillary line at the level of the xiphoid process; (4) two-inches caudad from the third electrode.