[Prenatal diagnosis of coiling of the umbilical cord around the neck and its effect on early neonatal prognosis].
"Real time" ultrasonic equipment enables antenatal diagnosis of nuchal encirclement by the umbilical cord. One hundred cases of normal term pregnancies were sonographically examined immediately before programmed delivery induction with a purpose of finding the cord around fetal neck. During the delivery all the patients were CTG monitored, after delivery the blood was taken from the umbilical artery for the acid-base balance analysis and also the Apgar score was determined. One of a hundred examined cases falsely negative and one falsely positive result were found which indicates that the method is highly sensitive and specific (sensitivity 94.1%, specificity 98.8%). There was a statistically significant difference (P less than 0.005) between acid-base balance, CTG and Apgar score in a group of the newborns with nuchal cord. The active antenatal ultrasonic search for umbilical cord around the fetal neck can significantly reduce the frequency of intrapartal hypoxia as well as the perinatal mortality and morbidity.