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The predictive value of a nonstress test taken 24 h before delivery in high-risk pregnancies
E Salamalekis1, N Vitoratos, C Loghis
12nd Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Athens, Areteion Hospital, Greece.
Objectives:
A series of 180 cases of high risk pregnancies were studied in order to assess if a nonstress test taken 24 h before delivery is of any prognostic significance.
Methods:
To assess the predictability of the NST (reactive or nonreactive) in terms of fetal outcome, the following variables were taken into consideration: fetal distress during labor, low Apgar score (< 7) and perinatal mortality rate.
Results:
A reactive test was found to be a good predictor of the healthy fetus (negative predictive value = 91.2%). Also, specificity of the test was found to be 85.4%.
Conclusions:
The nonreactive test could identify a population at risk but it was not helpful as a 'stand alone' modality in decision making, because of the low sensitivity and positive predictive value rates (40.9% and 28.1%, respectively).