A comparative study of vibroacoustic stimulation and non-stress test for early intrapartum fetal assessment

Author: 
Khushpreet Kaur., Navkiran Kaur., Arvinder Kaur., Parneet Kaur., Rama Garg and Kiran Kaushal

Introduction: Accurate perinatal recognition of foetal risk remains a major challenge in modern obstetrics. Several antepartum foetal assessment tests have evolved over the decade for the better management in high risk pregnancies.
Aims & Objectives: To compare Vibroacoustic Stimulation (VAS) test and Non-Stress Test (NST) for early intrapartumfetal assessment.
Methods- In this comparative study 100 women who were in the latent phase of labour at the time of admission to the labour unit were taken up for the study. In Group I, 50 women were subjected to NST whilst in Group II the other 50 were subjected to VAS. The fetal startle response and FHR acceleration following VAS and NST were observed. The results were co-related with perinatal outcome.
Results- Mean testing time for NST was 1348.64 secs while for VAS, it was 121.67 secs. In high risk patients NST was reactive in 87.5% while VAS was reactive in 84.6%. Meconium was detected in 20% patients with reactive NST where as it was found only in 8% subjects with reactive VAS. The specificity and positive predictive value of VAS test was 100%.
Conclusions- VAS test is a more reliable diagnostic test as compared to NST because of its simplicity, short testing time, non-invasiveness and high accuracy for early intrapartum foetal assessment.

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DOI: 
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2017.5141.0659
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