Purpose: to study the sensitivity and specificity based on fetal oxygen saturation (SpO2) values and fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns during labor, for the prognosis of acidotic fetuses at birth. Patients and Methods: SpO2 values were obtained by fetal pulse oximetry technique. A fetal SpO2 value > or = 30% was considered normal, and an SpO2 which remained <30.0% for more than 10 min between contractions was considered abnormal. Fetal SpO2 and FHR tracings were obtained during the first and second stage of labor. FHR classification used in the study has been derived from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development19. Results: a total of 72 subjects were studied. The sensitivity and specificity, based on SpO2, were 61.5% and 96.6%, respectively, whereas the sensitivity and specificity based on FHR patterns were 69.2% and 66.1%. Positive and negative predictive values based on SpO2 were 80% and 91.9%, respectively, and based on FHR patterns were 31% and 90.7%, respectively. Conclusions: a good fetal SpO2 specificity for prognosis of acidotic fetuses at birth was found, if compared with FHR pattern specificity, whereas sensitivity was poor for both methods. However, the number of acidotic fetuses was too small to allow more conclusions
Fetal distress; Labor; Fetal cardiotocography
