Modeling fetal--maternal heart-rate interaction.
The influence of maternal respiration on the occurrence of short-term fetal--maternal heart-rate coordination was examined using a model, which considers both heart-rate characteristics and effects of maternal respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Epochs of fetal--maternal heart-rate coordination were identified in model data produced at varying respiratory rates and compared with epochs found in real data acquired in mother-fetus pairs. The model results suggest that the low incidence of epochs found in the real data at low-breathing rates may be explained by heart-rate characteristics, but that the higher incidence at fast rates must be due to other factors.
Van Leeuwen
Peter
P
Department of Biomagnetism, Chair of Radiology and Microtherapy, University Witten/Herdecke, Universitätsstr. 142, 44799 Bochum, Federal Republic of Germany. petervl@microtherapy.de
Geue
Daniel
D
Lange
Silke
S
Grönemeyer
Dietrich H W
DH
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011247:Pregnancy; D012119:Respiration; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric