Association of Adverse Outcomes with Abnormal Umbilical Artery Waveform in Intrauterine Growth Restricted Pregnancies

Background: Intrauterine growth restriction refers to a fetus with a fetal weight in the 10th percentile on ultrasonography who has not reached its biologically set growth potential due to a pathologic condition. Aim: To determine the association of adverse outcome with abnormal umbilical artery waveform groups in intrauterine growth restricted pregnancies. Methods: This Cohort Study was conducted from February 2019 to 12 February 2020 at Gynae & Obs Department, Imran Idrees Teaching Hospital Sialkot, Sialkot Medical College, Sialkot 120 pregnant females, attending Department of Gynae & Obs were recruited into the study after 28 weeks of gestation. The women were divided into two groups depending on their Doppler findings. One group (exposed) comprised of women with intrauterine growth restriction, with absent or reversed diastolic flow in the umbilical artery. The control (unexposed) group included women with small-for-date fetuses, with normal umbilical artery Doppler flow. Results: The mean age of females was 27.40 ± 4.77 years. The mean gestational age was 30.69 ± 2.19 weeks. The mean birth weight of neonates was 2.37 ± 0.90 kg. The mean AGPAR score of neonates was 6.60 ± 1.70. It was observed that there was significant association between groups and low birth weight with p-value = 0.002. Admissions to NICU were significantly lower in normal Doppler wave form group having p-value = 0.001. Conclusion: The percentage of NICU admission was 46.7% and the percentage of low birth weight was 46.7% in intrauterine growth restriction. The mean birth weight was significantly lower in exposed group and the mean APGAR score was also significantly lower in exposed group. Keywords: Apgar score, neonatal intensive care unit, Intrauterine Growth Restriction, Doppler ultrasound,