Recurrent early miscarriage and polycystic ovaries.

constant venous flow. The waveforms were defined as abnormal if shifts in frequency at the end of diastole were absent in recordings obtained from three different points on the maternal abdomen. A sample offetal blood was taken from the umbilical vein by cordocentesis, and the oxygen tension and pH were determined (figure). The degree of fetal smallness was expressed as the number of standard deviations by which the observed abdominal circumference differed from the normal mean for gestational age, and the severity ofhypoxiawas expressed as the difference between the oxygen tension observed and the normal mean for gestational age.4 The correlation between the degree of fetal smallness and thepH ofblood from the umbilical vein (r= -0 -095) or the severity of fetal hypoxia (r= -0 02) was not significant. Seven fetuses had normal oxygen tensions and pH, 25 were hypoxic, five were acidotic, and 22 were both acidotic and hypoxic.