Objectives: To study the association of second trimester uterine artery Doppler (PI) pattern with adverse maternal and fetal outcome. Methods: Prospective cohort study involving 100 singleton, uncomplicated gestations between 18-28 weeks of gestation, attending the ante-natal clinic of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, a tertiary care centre in Kerala, Southern India from July 2017 and September 2020. Approval from the Institutional Ethics committee was obtained. Patient details, complications and neonatal outcomes were obtained from the hospital's electronic medical records. Uterine artery Pulsatility index (PI), the most commonly used index was done routinely with second-trimester (anomaly) scan. It is considered to be abnormal if above the 90th centile for the gestational age. Results: Of 100 samples, 15% were subject to hypertensive disorder, 7 % fetal growth restriction (FGR) and 7% spontaneous preterm labour. Abnormal PI was found in 13 pregnancies. 69.2% of this was complicated by hypertensive disorders (p = 0.001). Sensitivity and specificity was 60% and 95.3% respectively. 23.1% had FGR (p = 0.064) with sensitivity of 44.4% and specificity of 90%. 38.5% had preterm birth (32-37 weeks) (p = 0.051). Out of the 100 neonates, 94% of the neonates had APGAR≥7. 12% of the total required immediate NICU admission for various factors. No statistically significant association between uterine artery PI and spontaneous preterm labour (p = 1.00), neonatal birth weight (p = 0.3), APGAR score at birth (p = 0.36) and NICU admission (p = 0.076). Conclusions: Uterine artery Doppler is not only an inexpensive and non-invasive modality, but also becoming quite popular in developing countries as routine practice. The findings from this study certainly have potential clinical implications with the use of second trimester uterine artery Doppler for the management of high risk pregnancies especially with hypertensive disorders, FGR and preterm birth with good sensitivity and specificity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.