[A comparative study of the prognostic pH values of the fetus in utero, generated by the "quantitative cardiotocography" computer method, and the actual pH values measured immediately after delivery].
BACKGROUND
The presented methodology for quantitative evaluation of the cardiotocographic (CTG) findings unconditionally provides essential opportunities for improving the diagnostic potential in modern obstetric practice. Current literature data concerning the clinical application of this method are scarce. Credible clinical trials are needed to determine what is the correlation between estimated and actual values of the studied variables.


METHODS
A prospective study on 110 pregnant women was performed. All patients were monitored via indirect cardiotocography. The recordings were stored and analyzed by the computerized method for "quantitative cardiotocography". We compared the last prognostic fetal pH value, generated by the "quantitative cardiotocography" software during labor, with the actual pH measured from the umbilical artery (UA) of the newborn.


RESULTS
For each of the stored CTG recordings we quantified the difference between the last forecast and the actual pH of the newborn. In 82% of these cases this difference was in range of -0081/+0074 from the projected results. However during the study we discovered that there is a significantly better correlation between the arithmetic average of the last 6 (six) predicted results and the actual pH of the newborn. In 85% of these cases the difference between forecast and actual pH values lies a in range of -0037/+0046.


CONCLUSIONS
Using the arithmetic average of the last 6 (six) predicted results for pH leads to a significant increase in the clinical value of the "quantitative cardiotocography". More studied are needed if we are to find opportunities to further reduce the existing prediction variability.
Ignatov
P
P
Atanasov
B
B
Kostov
I
I
Velev
R
R
Kovacheva
A
A
Dobreva
A
A
D000328:Adult; D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000379:methods*; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008954:Models, Biological; D014469:Umbilical Arteries / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult