the diagnostic value of three fetal movements counting in one hour by mother in the diagnosis of decreased fetal movements

the diagnostic value of three fetal movements counting in one hour by mother in the diagnosis of decreased fetal movements kamalifard m[1], ghojazadeh m[2], abbasalizadeh sh[3], ghatrehsamani f[4], rabiei l[5]* received: 1 jun, 2012 accepted: 25 aug, 2012abstractbackground & aims: fetal movement counting is a method that used by the mother to quantify her baby&apos;s movements. since 1970s a variety of counting techniques with different alarm limits have been developed few of which have been evaluated for predictive values and hence the clinical value of the absolute number of fetal movements has not been established.materials & methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out in 2011 in educational and medical center of alzahra in tabriz. three hundred singleton pregnant women at 32-40 weeks’ gestation having inclusion criteria were selected randomly from among women with complaint of decreased fetal movement. to perform the counting of three fetal movements in one hour and their recording in related chart was instructed by the researcher in a face to face manner. after the counting, pregnant woman was referred to ultrasound unit in order to perform the test of biophysical profile, then the two test results were compared with each other.result: according to the test of fetal movement counting, 99.7% of fetuses were active and 0.3% of them were inactive. on the basis of the test of biophysical profile, 96.3% of fetuses had score of 10 and 3.7% had score less than 10. in this study, a significant relationship was found to exist between the result of maternal fetal movement counting and biophysical profile (p< 0.001). the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the test of fetal movement counting were 100%, 96%, 9% and 100% respectively.conclusion:  the result of this study suggests the usefulness of maternal fetal movement counting as an early simple screening and noninvasive method in assessment of fetal well-being.key words: diagnostic value, fetal movement counting, biophysical profile address: student research center, department of midwifery, faculty of nursing & midwifery, tabriz university of  medical sciences, tabriz, iran. tel: (+98)9124900711email: [email protected]                                   [1] msc, instructor, department of midwifery, faculty of  nursing & midwifery, tabriz university of  medical sciences, tabriz, iran.[2] assistant professor of physiology, women&apos;s health research center, tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran.[3] perinatologist, associate professor, faculty of medicine, tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran.[4] radiologist, associate professor, faculty of medicine, tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran.[5] msc, postgraduate student, student research center, department of midwifery, faculty of  nursing & midwifery, tabriz university of  medical sciences, tabriz, iran. (corresponding author)