Doppler ultrasound assessment of cerebral blood flow in the human fetus

Summary. A mechanical sector and linear array real‐time scanner combined with a pulsed Doppler system was used for recording the flow velocity waveform in the internal carotid artery, the lower thoracic part of the descending aorta and umbilical artery in the human fetus. A total of 42 fetuses in normal pregnancy and nine growth‐retarded fetuses between 26 and 41 weeks gestation was studied. In normal pregnancy the mean pulsatility index (PI) in...