Objective: To assess the performance of diastolic notch of uterine arteries as a predictor for preeclampsia.
Material and Method: A prospective study of 378 pregnant women between 18-22 week’s gestation who were attending at the Antenatal Care Clinic, Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University was conducted. Doppler flow velocity waveform of all subjects was screened for the presence of diastolic notch of uterine artery to be related with the pregnancy outcome.
Results: Diastolic notch was found in one or both uterine arteries in 51 subjects, yielding 78.6% sensitivity, 89.0% specificity, 21.6% positive predictive value, 99.1% negative predictive value, 88.6% accuracy, with likelihood ratio of positive and negative test result of 7.2 and 0.2 respectively in the prediction of preeclampsia.
Conclusion: Although having high sensitivity and specificity, diastolic notch of uterine artery found in the second trimester provides too low predictive value to be used as a routine screening for preeclampsia.

Keywords: Preeclampsia, Diastolic notch, Uterine artery