title: Mortality rates in low-birth-weight infants born after a positive contraction stress test.
abstract: Perinatal mortality rates and the indications for contraction stress tests (CSTs) were studied in 46 patients with positive test results and who gave birth to infants weighing between 500 and 1 500 g. Severe pre-eclampsia and intra-uterine growth retardation were the indications for the CST in the large majority of patients. The perinatal mortality rate for infants weighing between 500 and 1 000 g was 76.9%, for infants between 1 001 and 1 250 g 38.5%, and only 25% when the infants weighed 1 251 - 1 500 g. After conservative treatment because of fetal immaturity only 1 of 7 infants was born alive, but after immediate delivery by caesarean section there was a high rate of fatal hyaline membrane disease in infants weighing less than 1 000 g. The real danger of intra-uterine death in the presence of a positive CST result indicates prompt delivery when the fetus has a reasonable chance of survival in the neonatal period.
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005323:Fetal Monitoring; D005325:Fetal Organ Maturity; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy