Background: Pregnant women with late-onset fetal growth restriction
(LFGR) are at high risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality. However, it is
difficult to identify patients with a higher risk of adverse perinatal outcomes
at the time of diagnosing FGR. The aim of this study is whether
amniotic-umbilical-to-cerebral ratio (AUCR) is a better predictor than
cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) and umblicocerebral ratio (UCR) in detecting short
and long-term adverse perinatal outcomes (APO) in late-onset fetal growth
restriction. Methods: Retrospective cohort study, Doppler examinations
were performed between 35–37 weeks on pregnant women who were followed up in the
obstetrics and gynecology outpatient clinic of Nisa Hospital between April 1st,
2012, and April 1st, 2022, and were considered to have delayed growth according
to the Delphi consensus criteria. Sensitivity and specificity of measurements of
UCR, CPR, and AUCR for predicting a negative intrapartum or postpartum outcome
(fetal distress, Apgar score 7 at 5 minutes, umbilical arterial pH 7.1,
admission of the newborn to the neonatal intensive care unit, intrauterine death)
were evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the
ROC curve (AUC) were compared for UCR, CPR, and AUCR. Results: In this
study, 185 pregnant women were evaluated. It was determined that 56 women had
negative intrapartum or postpartum outcomes. UCR values were statistically
significantly higher in the group with APO (p 0.001), and the CPR
(p 0.001) and AUCR (p = 0.001) values were significantly
lower in this group. The AUC values for CPR, UCR, and AUCR were 0.70 [95%
confidence interval (CI): 0.62–0.79], 0.70 (95% CI: 0.62–0.79), and 0.66 (95%
CI: 0.58–0.75), respectively. In the multivariate Logistic regression analysis
of UCR, CPR, and AUCR values, there was no statistically significant correlation
between CPR, UCR, and AUCR Doppler parameters in fetuses with LFGR in terms of
detecting APO (p 0.05). Conclusions: A low AUCR and CPR,
and a high UCR were significantly associated with APO in fetuses with LFGR. There
was no difference in the diagnostic performance between AUCR, CPR, and UCR in
predicting adverse outcomes.