Cerebroplacental ratio as an indicator of placental functioning and its relationship with early communicative gestures acquisition

Abstract

Background

Gestures are linked to developmental and neurological development. Cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) has proven to be a good predictor of neurological damage within the growth-restricted fetuses’ population. However, its usefulness in the general population has not been studied for this purpose. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of CPR as a predictor of gesture acquisition.

Method

A prospective cohort of 35 singleton pregnancies with normally grown fetuses was recruited. Doppler indices for the umbilical artery (UA), middle cerebral artery (MCA) and cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) at 36–40 weeks of gestation were recorded. MacArthur-Bates I Communication Skills Development Questionnaires (SCDI) at 12 (±1) months of age were applied. Based on their gesture performance, they were divided into Normal Scores (NS), and Low Scores (LS).

Results

The independent samples t-test analysis revealed a significant difference between the NS group and LS in terms of CPRz scores (t = 2.706, p = .011). CPR z-scores values showed a positive correlation with early gesture centiles (R² = 0.145, p = .029) and late gesture centiles (R² = 0.178, p = .014).

Conclusion

CPR within the last weeks of pregnancy could be of potential utility to predict gesture acquisition.