Single versus pairwise interpretation of cardiotochography, a comparative study from six Swedish delivery units.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to evaluate whether interpreting CTG pairwise brings about a higher level of correctly classified CTG recordings in a non-selected population of midwives and physicians.


STUDY DESIGN
A comparative study.


SETTING
Five delivery units in Stockholm and one delivery unit in Uppsala, with 1589, 3740, 3908, 4539, 6438, and 7331 deliveries in 2011, respectively.


SUBJECTS
536 midwives and physicians classified one randomly selected CTG recording individually followed by a pairwise classification. The pairs consisted of two midwives (119 pairs) or one midwife and one physician (149 pairs), a total of 268 pairs.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
The proportion of individually correctly classified CTG recordings versus the proportion of pairwise correctly classified CTG recordings.


RESULTS
The proportion of individually correctly classified CTG's was 75% and the proportion of pairwise correctly classified CTG's was 80% (difference 5%, p = 0.12).


CONCLUSIONS
There was no statistically significant difference when CTG's were classified pairwise compared to individual classifications. The proportion of individually correctly classified CTG's was high (75%). There were differences in the proportion of correctly classified CTG recordings between the delivery units, indicating potential areas of improvement.
['Åmark|Hanna|H|', 'Millde-Luthander|Charlotte|C|', 'Ajne|Gunilla|G|', 'Högberg|Ulf|U|', 'Pettersson|Hans|H|', 'Wiklund|Ingela|I|', 'Grunewald|Charlotta|C|']
D015148:Cardiotocography D003696:Delivery Rooms D036861:Delivery, Obstetric D005260:Female D006296:Health Services D006801:Humans D008880:Midwifery D009774:Obstetrics D010820:Physicians D011247:Pregnancy D013548:Sweden
Pairwise interpretation Cardiotocography Cardiotocography interpretation Fetal surveillance Intrapartum