Doppler Evaluation of Middle Cerebral Artery and Umbilical Artery Pulsatility Index in the Diagnosis of IUGR Taking Clinical IUGR at Birth as Gold Standard

Abstract

doppler indices as the fetal Middle cerebral artery and the umbilical artery pulsatility index for their diagnostic accuracy and preserve clinically significant IUGR at birth as the gold standard. 

Methodology: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed at AFIRI, PEMH Rawalpindi from March 30, 2020, to September 29, 2020, AFIRI. There were 123 patients diagnosed with IUGR ranging in age at gestation: 31–40 weeks and ages 31 to 40 years old. Enrollment of all patients in the study was based on inclusion criteria. A 3.5–5 MHz convex array transducer was used to measure doppler indices once fetal biometry was completed.  During each examination, each series of measurements was made three times, and the outcomes were averaged.

Results: Following a doppler ultrasonography on all patients, it was discovered that 60 (48.7%) were true positives and 9 (7.3%) were false positives.  Of the 54 individuals who tested negative for Doppler, 7 (5.6%) were false negatives, meaning that a clinical examination revealed fetal IUGR after birth, and 47 (38.2%) were true negatives (p=0.0001). In order to diagnose IUGR pregnancies, the Doppler indices overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy were 89.55%, 83.93%, 86.96%, 87.04%, and 86.99%, respectively, for the fetal MCA and umbilical artery pulse index.