Association between umbilical coiling index and fetal distress

Background and Objective: It is well known that fetal distress is one of the important causes of fetus peri-natal morbidity and mortality. In this study, we sought to evaluate the association between umbilical coiling index and fetal distress. Materials and Methods: This research was a case-control study conducted on 90 term pregnant women. Study group had fetal distress (abnormal fetal heart rate, meconium staining, Apgar score less than 7 in fifth minute and pH of umbilical cord arterials < 7.2) and control group did not have above complications. After fetus birth, umbilical coiling index was calculated and heparinised blood of umbilical cord arteries was sent to laboratory for checking acidity. Finally, data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 18) using t-test and Pearson correlation test. Results: The mean umbilical coiling index was 0.23 ±0.13 coils/cm and 0.30± 0.13 coils/cm in case and control groups, respectively, which had meaningful difference (p=0.017). However, there was a significant correlation (p=0.03) between umbilical coiling index and bradycardia, but there was no significant association between umbilical coiling index and meconium staining, tachycardia, and acidity of umbilical cord arterials (p > 0.05). Roc curve demonstrated that umbilical coiling index had the ability to be used to predict fetal distress and the best point for predicting fetal distress was 0.23 coils/cm Conclusion: Fetal heart bradycardia had significant association with umbilical coiling index and it could be used to predict fetal distress