[Antenatal assessment of intrauterine growth retardation by ultrasonic fetal biometry and non-stress fetal heart rate testing]

Abstract

This paper presented the results of ultrasonic measurements and non-stress tests (NST) in 60 light-for-dates (LFD) fetuses. BPD, FFL, mean abdominal diameter (MAD), HC/AC ratio and EFW were used as the parameters and the rates of LFD detection were evaluated. The effects of antenatal therapy for IUGR were assessed by the analyses of normal deviate values of EFW in treated and untreated groups. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of NST findings were presented. As to the detection of LFD, sensitivity values for MAD and EFW were 66.7% and 53.8% respectively; meanwhile both parameters disclosed the same degree of accuracy, as high as 90.0%. EFW values were well correlated to the actual birth weight and the mean estimation error was 147g. No evident increase in the normal deviate value for EFW was noted in any type of therapy. On the other hand, the value decreased in the untreated EPH gestosis group. The incidences of non-reactive and fetal distress patterns for NST in the LFD group were significantly higher than those in the normal control group. In particular, the high rate of mild variable deceleration and dip 0 was characteristic of IUGR. Quantitative analysis of NST also revealed a high rate (38.4%) non-reactive pattern. However, it showed a slight decrease in the amplitude and frequency of LTV.