COMPARISON OF THE ACOUSTIC STIMULATION TEST WITH NONSTRESS TEST - A RANDOMIZED, CONTROLLED CLINICAL-TRIAL

The nonstress test (NST) is a helpful adjunct in the management of hig h-risk pregnancies. It has high predictability and a low false-negativ e rate but unfortunately has fairly high false-positive results. Attem pts have been made to find a suitable stimulant to help decrease non r eactive results as well as to shorten the duration of testing: the rec ently introduced fetal acoustic stimulation test (AST) may have such a ttributes. This prospective, randomized clinical trial was carried out to assess the new test. A fetal of 1,300 individual tests were perfor med on high-risk pregnancies. Cases were randomized to receive either the AST or NST. All tracings were interpreted blindly by an independen t perinatologist. The incidence of nonreactive tests was 6.8% in the A ST group and 13.8% in the NST group (P<.001). There was a significant reduction in the time needed for a reactive test to occur If can be co ncluded, therefore, that AST offers a greater advantage over NST by lo wering both the incidence of nonreactive tests and testing time, there by resulting in less of a need for the contraction stress test and bio physical profile.