Diva Yadav
BME MS Thesis Defense Presentation
Date: 2025-12-01
Time: 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM 
Location / Meeting Link: Online via Teams: https://tinyurl.com/zznrmaet

Committee Members:
Dr. Rudolph Gleason; Dr. Hai Dong; Dr. Levi Wood


Title: Vascular Remodeling and Hemodynamic Changes in Early and Late Forms of Preeclampsia in an Ethiopian Cohort

Abstract:
Maternal and neonatal mortality remain significant health challenges in many low-resource settings, including Ethiopia. The Gleason Lab at Georgia Tech works with partners in Addis Ababa to help address these issues by developing practical, affordable tools for maternal and neonatal care. This thesis focuses on preeclampsia (PE), a hypertensive disorder that is one of the leading and preventable causes of maternal complications and death. A healthy pregnancy requires significant cardiovascular adjustments to support the growing uterus and placenta, including increased blood volume and cardiac output, lower systemic resistance, and remodeling of the uterine arteries. In preeclampsia, these adaptations do not occur normally due to abnormal placentation, leading to elevated uteroplacental resistance. These disruptions show up as measurable differences in several hemodynamic parameters. This thesis uses data from an ongoing longitudinal study in Addis Ababa and describes how routine maternal data is collected and managed across four antenatal visits and postpartum follow-ups. The study relies on routine, relatively low-cost measurements (blood pressure, pulse-wave analysis, and vascular ultrasound) that are feasible to implement in public clinics. The three main goals of this paper are: (1) to outline the study protocol and data-management workflow; (2) to evaluate gestational-age patterns in some hemodynamic parameters: mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), total peripheral resistance (TPR), and uterine-artery pulsatility index (UtA-PI); (3) to compare these trajectories between normotensive and preeclamptic pregnancies. The findings show that these routine measurements produce physiologically coherent trends and capture expected differences in preeclamptic pregnancies, supporting future development