WEBINAR SERIES—Sympathetic Regulation in Human Pregnancy

November 13, 2024
11 a.m. EST

Normal pregnancy is associated with dramatic changes in the pregnant parent’s hemodynamics. These changes can be detected as early as four weeks of gestation and reach a plateau in the second trimester. It has been proposed that parental hemodynamic changes during pregnancy occur through sympathetic neural mechanisms. However, the actual role of the sympathetic nervous system in blood pressure regulation during pregnancies with normal and high blood pressure remains largely unclear. In this webinar, Qi Fu, MD, PhD, reviews longitudinal changes in sympathetic neural control in uncomplicated and hypertensive pregnancy. She also discusses the impact of the pregnant parent’s obesity versus gestational weight gain on sleep apnea risk, sympathetic reactivity and pregnancy outcomes. 

Key topics include: 

• Review parental hemodynamic changes during normal pregnancy.
• Describe sympathetic neural control in normal and hypertensive pregnancies. 
• Determine the impact of parental obesity versus gestational weight gain on sleep apnea risk and sympathetic regulation in pregnancy. 

Speaker

Qi Fu, MD, PhD
Professor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Qi Fu, MD, PhD, is the director of the Women’s Heart Health Laboratory at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, and a professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. As a medical researcher, she practiced medicine in the Department of Neurology for eight years and has been studying autonomic circulatory control and vascular function in a wide range of populations, including those who are pregnant, for over 27 years. Fu has explored the field of blood pressure regulation during various interventions The majority of her projects focus on the mechanisms underlying blood pressure regulation in women.