Toward quantitative fetal heart rate monitoring.
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.
Cao
Hanqing
H
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 22908, USA. hc2a@ieee.org
Lake
Douglas E
DE
Ferguson
James E
JE
Chisholm
Christian A
CA
Griffin
M Pamela
MP
Moorman
J Randall
JR
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