[The evaluation of various fetal blood flow velocity waveforms in predicting perinatal outcomes]

One hundred and four women in their third trimester of pregnancy were examined with colour Doppler ultrasound for their fetal blood flow velocity waveforms (FVWs) of the umbilical artery (UA), renal artery (RA), and middle cerebral artery (MCA) in relation to the perinatal outcomes. The Doppler parameters studied included their pulsatile indexes (PI) and the PI ratio of MCA/UA (M/U PI) and of MCA/RA (M/R PI). The criteria for adverse perinatal outcome were set as follows: (1) Apgar score < 7; (2) birth weight < or = 10th % percentile of same gestational age; (3) oligaohydramnio or meconium staining. All the studied Doppler parameters were correlative to the perinatal outcomes (P < 0.05), but as shown by the best cut off point of each parameter, the difference between the specificity of the Doppler parameters in prediction was of no significance (P > 0.05). However the ratio M/R PI and M/U PI were significantly more sensitive than the UA PI RA PI and MCA PI (P < 0.05). The results indicated that though relationship exists between each Doppler parameter and the perinatal outcome, M/R PI and M/U PI are better indexes in predicting adverse perinatal outcome, when compared with UA PI RA PI and MCA PI. Maybe the M/R PI and M/U PI are less affected by the blood flow input impedance.