The value of neutrophils/lymphocyte ratio in predicting foetuses that need urgent delivery in post-term pregnancies:...

To verify the performance of neutrophils ratio to the natural logarithm of lymphocyte ratio in detecting foetuses requiring urgent delivery in post-term pregnancies.

The prospective observational study was conducted from June 2019 to March 2020, at the University Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, and comprised post-term pregnant females at a gestational age of 40-41+3 days who were followed up until delivery. Demographic data was recorded for each patient, and all of them were subjected to Doppler examination of biophysical profile and amniotic fluid index. Complete blood count was done to generate neutrophils ratio to the natural logarithm of lymphocyte ratio. Receiver operating characteristic curve determined the cut-off value, sensitivity and specificity of neutrophils ratio to the natural logarithm of lymphocyte ratio.

There were 74 post-term pregnant women with a mean age of 28.95±6.71 years and the mean foetal age at delivery was 287.38±3.72 days. Of the total, 49(66.22%) women were delivered >10 days post-term, while 25(33.78%) were delivered urgently <10 days post-term because of regression in their biophysical profile score and foetal compromise. The neutrophils ratio to the natural logarithm of lymphocyte ratio showed significant correlation with biophysical profile and amniotic fluid index scores (p<0.05). The ratio cut-off value was found to be >21.6 associated with highest sensitivity and specificity of 81% and 87.5% respectively. Area under the curve was 0.89 (p<0.001).

Neutrophils ratio to the natural logarithm of lymphocyte ratio identified foetuses who needed urgent termination in post-term pregnancies.