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Background: Perinatal hypoxia is a major contributor to neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide. Intrapartum assessment of fetal well-being has become an integral part of labour management. Labor admission test (LAT), a test of fetal well-being, can be utilized as a screening tool in early labor to detect compromised fetuses on admission. Objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of LAT in assessing fetal well-being at the onset of labor and comparing the test results with neonatal outcomes. Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among women admitted in labor room of a tertiary care teaching hospital. LAT was performed following which, the patients were classified according to FHR tracings obtained as ‘Reactive’, ‘Equivocal’ and ‘Non-reactive. Perinatal outcomes of these patients were also assessed. Results: Out of 165 patients that participated in the study, 106 (64.2%) had reactive, 6 (3.6%) had equivocal and 53 (32.1%) had non-reactive FHR trace on LAT. Out of the patients with a non-reactive trace, 8 (15.1%) had an APGAR score at 5 minutes of less than 7, 8 (15.1%) patients had meconium stained liquor and 45 (84.9%) were delivered through LSCS. About 27 (50.9%) newborns required admission into the NICU in this group. Conclusions: LAT can be used as a simple, non-invasive, inexpensive screening tool to identify fetuses who are unlikely to cope with the stress of labor and become hypoxic especially when continuous electronic fetal monitoring is not possible for every patient due to economic constraints.

Background: In the United States, a new HIV diagnostic algorithm has been proposed that uses an HIV-1/HIV-2 antibody differentiation immunoassay instead of Western blot or immunofluoresence for confirmatory testing., Objectives: To evaluate the Multispot HIV-1/HIV-2 Rapid Test (Multispot) as an alternative to Western blot analysis for confirmation of HIV infection., Study Design: A series of 205 serum and plasma specimens positive for HIV-1 or HIV-2 were used to compare the performance of Multispot to a standard HIV-1 Western blot. Positive samples included 63 specimens from patients>18 months of age, 33 proficiency survey specimens, and 109 specimens from nine commercial seroconversion and performance panels. In addition, 63 specimens from 51 HIV-exposed, uninfected children≤18 months of age in various stages of seroreversion and 192 HIV-negative samples were tested. Specimens were initially screened using a 4th generation HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay., Results: Multispot readily discriminated between individuals with HIV-1 or HIV-2 infection and those who were uninfected. Of the 205 samples repeatedly reactive by the 4th generation screening assay, infection status was correctly confirmed by Multispot in 83.9% (172/205) compared to 68.8% (141/205) for Western blot. Multispot detected HIV-1 earlier in 27.6% of low-titer antibody specimens called indeterminate by Western blot, and effectively reduced the number of indeterminate results in seroreverting HIV-1 exposed, uninfected infants and for HIV-2 infections misinterpreted as indeterminate or positive by HIV-1 Western blot., Conclusions: Multispot offers speed and simplicity over Western blot and has an excellent performance for differentiation and confirmation of antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)