title: Gender-related changes in magnetocardiographically determined fetal cardiac time intervals in intrauterine growth retardation.
abstract: Prenatal growth deficiencies as well as gender have been associated with cardiovascular disease in later life. It is also known that the duration of fetal cardiac time intervals (CTI) are dependent on fetal development. The aim of this work was to examine the relationship between fetal CTI in healthy and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) fetuses, taking gender into account. A total of 269 magnetocardiograms (MCG) were obtained in 47 healthy and 27 IUGR pregnancies. In each signal-averaged MCG, durations of CTI were determined. Age- and heart rate-corrected values were compared between normal and IUGR fetuses separately with respect to gender. Overall, there was an association between atrial and ventricular conduction times and estimated fetal body weight. In female fetuses, IUGR was associated with shorter P WAVE, PQ segment, PR interval, and QRS complex and longer STT and QT intervals. For males, this was so only for P wave, QRS complex, and STT interval. The shortening of conduction times in IUGR may be explained by reduced cardiac muscle mass associated with lower body weight. On the other hand, the gender-specific differences, particularly in the IUGR fetuses may be due to hormonal factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomagnetism, Grönemeyer Institute of Microtherapy, University Witten/Herdecke, 44799 Bochum, Germany. petervl@microtherapy.de
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Leeuwen
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schiermeier
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Geue
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hatzmann
authors.forename: Dietrich H W
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Grönemeyer
mesh_terms: D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D012737:Sex Factors