Antepartum fetal surveillance in post-date pregnancy

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Three different antepartum surveillance tests were evaluated in the management of postdate pregnancy. The aim was to evaluate the reliability and predictive value of BPS, NST and AFV in antepartum fetal surveillance of post-date pregnancy in terms of pregnancy outcome. METHODS: Forty-five pregnant women who were proven to be postdate were included from the antenatal clinic of Shatby Maternity Hospital, Alexandria, Egypt. Patients were put into 3 groups according to management protocol: group I (n = 15) managed by BPS, group II (n = 15) managed by NST and group III managed by sonographic assessment of AFV with NST. RESULTS: AFV had higher positive predictive value (66.67%) than BPS (50%) and NST (50%) and also more sensitivity (66.67%) than BPS (33.3%) and NST (50%). The 3 tests had more or less equivalent negative predictive values and specificities. CONCLUSIONS: The study highly recommends sonographic assessment of AFV with NST as an ideal antepartum surveillance test in prediction of fetal well-being in post-date pregnancy.