No routine ultrasound screening protocol improves outcomes (Haws et al. 2009). It can be surmised from other research that this is due to the incredible inaccuracy of ultrasound. A recent study found a full third or 34% of ultrasound fetal weight estimates to be outside of the expected +10% to -10% range (Hargreaves 2011). Another study from 2011 found that 1 in 23 (4%) of first trimester ultrasounds in which the woman was told there was no viable pregnancy were wrong and the fetus was fine and the pregnancy went to term (Abdallah et al. 2011). Ultrasound technology cannot reliably predict the presence of a nuchal cord, tell whether a nuchal cord is tight or determine anything regarding the likelihood of hypoxia, IUGR or stillbirth (Cohain 2010). Use of 3D Doppler color ultrasound specifically done to look for a cord in labor detected only 35% of cords around the neck, 60% of cords that were twice around the neck and had a 20% false positive rate, meaning the results said there was a cord around the neck in 20% of fetuses when there wasn’t (Bolten et al. 2009).
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:50:07 +0000
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