Significant correlation between maternal hemodynamics and fetal heart rate variability.
The differential index, describing the short-term component, and the interval index, describing the long-term component, of fetal heart rate variability were measured by an on-line method from the abdominal electrocardiograms of eight fetuses during the third trimester of normal pregnancies while mothers were smoking a cigarette. Maternal heart rate and maternal blood pressure were measured intermittently before, during, and after smoking. Analyses of fetal heart rate variability were performed continuously with the sample time of 1 minute during the experiments. An increase in maternal heart rate and blood pressure, with concomitant decrease in the interval index and the differential index, was observed. The correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation between maternal heart rate and the interval index (p less than 0.001), between diastolic pressure and the differential index (p less than 0.01), and between systolic pressure and the differential index (p less than 0.01).
D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005318:Fetal Heart; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D010920:Placenta / Q000098:blood supply; D011247:Pregnancy; D012907:Smoking