The ultrasound score and fetal heart-rate pattern as predictor of fetal outcome.

Over a period of one year 312 high-risk patients (HRP) were prospectively monitored using ultrasound score (USS), nonstress test (NST) and contraction stress test (CST). There were nine cases with low USS, seven of them had reactive NSTs, were delivered vaginally without any evidence of distress in labour and had normal Apgar scores with no perinatal morbidity. In the remaining two cases the NST was nonreactive and they were delivered by cesarean section because of fetal distress. The NST was not reactive in 18 patients, eight of them subsequently had abnormal CST and displayed fetal distress during labour. The USS was high in 16 cases. The results of this study seems to indicate that in cases with nonreactive NST, CST is a better predictor of fetal outcome than the ultrasound score.