title: Toward quantitative fetal heart rate monitoring.
abstract: Continuous electronic fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring during labor is motivated by the clinical experience that fetal distress causes loss of FHR variation and the occurrence of decelerations late during uterine contraction. This practice is of uncertain clinical benefit, perhaps because the interpretation is qualitative. We have developed new quantitative measures and analyzed cardiotocograph records from 148 consecutive patients, 44 of whom had at least one "nonreassuring" epoch. In multivariate regression models, measures of deceleration and variability were significantly associated with the obstetrician's diagnosis (receiver operating characteristic area 0.84, p < 0.05). This approach may be useful clinically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 22908, USA. hc2a@ieee.org
authors.forename: Hanqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Douglas E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.forename: Christian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Chisholm
authors.forename: M Pamela
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.forename: J Randall
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Moorman
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000379:methods*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005318:Fetal Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity