title: Study of foetal heart rate patterns in pregnancy with intra-uterine growth restriction during antepartum period.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate foetal heart rate pattern during antepartum period in pregnancies suffering from intrauterine growth restriction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The case control study was conducted at the Alzahra Hospital, Tabriz, Iran from April 2008 to April 2011. It comprised 100 pregnancies with intra-uterine growth restriction and 92 normal pregnancies. The foetal heart rate pattern including basal heart rate, beat-to-beat variation, non-stress test (NST) result and acceleration and deceleration patterns of the heart rate were determined in both groups during the antepartum period. Findings were compared between the two groups and their relation with pregnancy-foetal outcomes was specified in the case group. SPSS 15 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no statistically significant difference between the foetus mean basal heart rate in the two groups (p <0.960). Frequency of cases with non-reactive non-stress test in the Cases was significantly higher than Controls (p <0.005). The difference in heart rate acceleration was also not statistically significant (p <0.618). Frequency of cases with low birth weight and caesarian was non-significantly but borderline higher among the Cases (p <0.081 and 0.060, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Abnormal foetal heart rate pattern is more common in pregnancies marked by intra-uterine growth restriction and is directly associated with worse pregnancy/foetal outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynaecology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fardiazar
authors.forename: Nasrin Mirzaii Nasir
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Abad
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abassalizade
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torab
authors.forename: Mohamad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goldust
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001034:Apgar Score; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005318:Fetal Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005323:Fetal Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012189:Retrospective Studies