Publication:

Comparative Study of Colour Doppler versus Non Stress Test as a predictor of Perinatal outcome in PIH and IUGR

Background Hypertensive disorders and intrauterine growth restriction are common complications encountered during pregnancy. This study was conducted to observe the usefulness of systolic/ diastolic (S/D) ratio in umbilical artery as compared with non-stress test (NST) to predict perinatal outcome in pregnancies complicated with hypertensive disorders and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR).

Methods It was a prospective observational which was conducted on patients undergoing antenatal visits at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Army hospital research and referral, New Delhi from May 2017 to April 2019. NST was started at 32 weeks twice weekly in all patients. All patients were subjected to umbilical artery Doppler velocimetry waveform on weekly basis or every third day in cases of nonreactive NST.

Results Out of 140 patients, 53 patients (37.9%) had PIH and 44 (31.4%) had IUGR. 43 cases (30.7%) had both PIH and IUGR. Among the 140 patients, 40 patients (28.6%) had non-reactive NST and 60 patients (42.9%) of the patients had abnormal doppler. Abnormal doppler and non-reactive NST were associated with APGAR score of less than 7 at 5 minutes in the newborn. Abnormal perinatal outcome was more in abnormal doppler than normal doppler and the finding was statistically significant (p<0.05).

Conclusions Overall sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy of Doppler is better as compared to that of NST in terms of detecting adverse perinatal outcomes.