Cutaneous blood flow in gestational hypertension and normal pregnancy

A laser Doppler flowmeter was used to assess skin blood flow changes in three groups of young subjects: women with gestational hypertension, healthy pregnant women, and healthy non-pregnant women. Responses to four vasoactive stimuli were studied: isometric and cognitive activities, cutaneous post ischemic reactive hyperemia, and local heating. The first two stimuli are vasoconstrictive and were performed on the fingertip, whereas the latter two are vasodilative and were performed on the forearm. The most prominent differences were observed in the isometric test, where the expected decrease, which was indeed registered in non-pregnant women, was almost absent in the healthy pregnant group. The gestational hypertension group had a greater decrease in blood flow than normal pregnancy, but lesser than non-pregnant control subjects. We conclude that although normal pregnancy modifies the response of the skin microvasculature to some vasoactive stimuli, gestational hypertension pushes that response back toward the non-pregnancy state.