Oxytocin challenge test for antepartum fetal assessment. Report of a clinical experience.
OCT's were performed 1,209 times on 533 fetuses at risk for UPI. OCT interpretation was negative for 72% of tests, and there were were no fetal deaths within a week following a negative test. Our data thus support the concept that the use of the OCT for fetal surveillance most frequently justifies a course of nonintervention. Of 69 fetuses with positive test, 47 were subjected to the stresses of labor with maternal hyperoxygenation and lateral poisoning. Twenty of these 47 (43%) tolerated labor without biophysical evidence of distress. Reactivity of the FHR, when present during a positive test, significantly increased the likelihood that a fetus would tolerate labor. The fetal and perinatal mortality rates in the patients identified as a risk for UPI and studied with OCT's were no greater than in a comparable group of pregnancies without identifiable risk for UPI and not studied with OCT's.
D005260:Female; D005318:Fetal Heart / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005333:Fetus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D010121:Oxytocin; D010927:Placental Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D014591:Uterine Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis
D010121:Oxytocin