title: Intrapartum fetal heart rate patterns and neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage.
abstract: A goal for the obstetrician and neonatologist is to screen for risk factors associated with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in the low-birthweight infant. Perinatal events that lead to neonatal metabolic and cardiovascular derangements seem to provoke IVH, and conflicting reports have implicated labor as being contributory. A fetal heart rate (FHR) abnormality during premature labor may be a predictor of subsequent neonatal IVH. For this reason, 5 years of FHR tracings at two university medical centers were reviewed for inborn infants who were delivered after premature labor and weighed less than or equal to 2000 gm. Sixty-four infants developed IVH, but pre-existing labor with a discernible FHR pattern was recorded in only 38 (59%) cases. Interpretations were reassuring in 17 (45%) cases, suspicious in 7 (18%) cases, and ominous in 14 (37%) cases. This proportion of FHR patterns was not significantly different from a matched group of premature infants without IVH during the same period. Interpretations of intrapartum FHR patterns of low-birthweight infants are limited, especially before 30 weeks gestation, and not useful in predicting neonatal IVH.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005323:Fetal Monitoring; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy