:: Article: Prospective Evaluation of Individual Cardiotocography Parameters in Predicting a Nonasphyxiated Fetus
:: Author(s): Pankaj Desai, Ashish Shah
:: Keyword : cardiotocography, baseline heart rate, beat to beat variability, fetal asphyxia

:: Objectives :- : To assess the efficacy of individual parameters of cardiotocography (CTG) in predicting fetal asphyxia.

:: Methods : - : ln the present prospective study we have analyzed the efficacy of the four basic parameters viz. 1) baseline heart rate, 2) beat to beat variability, 3) accelerations and 4) decelerations in individually predicting a non-asphyxiated fetus.

:: Results : - : Eighty percent of babies born to mothers with baseline fetal heart rate <100 bpm were asphyxiated. The same figure precipitously falls down to 2.25% when baseline fetal heart rate was between 110 to 150. This soars to 68.75% at baseline heart rate> 170 bpm. Beat to beat variability is supposedly the most sensitive of all amongst individual parameters. When between 10 - 25 bpm it showed least asphyxia in the newborn (2.95%). On the other hand reduced beat to beat variability of< 5 bpm had 78.77% babies asphyxiated. Presence of< 1 acceleration of 10 -15 seconds had 80% babies asphyxiated. On the other hand?. accelerations of> 15 seconds in a period of 20 minutes had the lowest rate of asphyxia i.e. 2.96%. All mothers with variable decelarations have babies born asphyxiated. Late decelerations had 67.86% asphyxiated babies.

:: Conclusion :- : Beat to beat variability with near 90% specificity and 91% sensitivity turns out to be the most reliable individual parameter in predicting a nonasphyxiated baby.

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