Background Pre-eclampsia is characterised by hypertension and proteinuria and associated with systemic hypoperfusion of multiple maternal organs. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a recognised complication of pre-eclampsia and the two conditions share the same primary pathology. The clinical features of pre-eclampsia are consistent with hypoxia and the changes in oxygen delivery and consumption indices in women with severe disease are similar to that observed in distributive shock. However, so far there are no studies done on maternal tissue oxygenation levels in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia and IUGR.

Methodology Women in their third trimester with pre-eclampsia, IUGR and normal pregnancy (n = 16, 6, 16 respectively) were recruited for the study. Filtrass strain gauge plethysmography was used to compare calf blood flow and Mediaid iPOX pulse oximeter was used to compare the oxygenation in the three groups.

Results The resting peripheral blood flow was significantly reduced in pre-eclampsia group compared to normal pregnancy group (mean ± SEM [2.1 ± 0.22 vs.1.01 ± 0.1], p = 0.003), however no change was demonstrated in IUGR group compared to normal pregnancy group (mean ± SEM [2.1 ± 0.22 vs.1.9 ± 0.5], p = 0.92). No significant difference was noted in maternal tissue oxygenation between the normal pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and IUGR groups (mean ± SEM [97.13 ± 0.4, 96.69 ± 0.33, 97.83 ± 0.47 respectively} p = 0.26). No correlation was found between blood flow and tissue oxygenation.

Conclusion This study demonstrated that there is reduced resting peripheral blood flow in women with pre-eclampsia but not in IUGR and the reduction in blood flow in pre-eclampsia is not associated with changes in tissue oxygenation.