OBJECTIVE: To assess the correlation between the total deceleration area of the fetal heart rate (FHR) pre-delivery trace and intrapartum fetal acid-base status in a low risk population. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed the electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) traces of 26 pregnancies with fetuses presenting acidemia at delivery and those of thirty controls. All laboring patients had at least 1 hour of EFM without interruption. The deceleration area was calculated, after digital analysis, with Autocad System 2004. RESULTS: We found that the number of decelerations (8.03 +/- 3.77 vs. 4.64 +/- 3.84) and the total deceleration area/hour (35.56 +/- 11.87 vs. 17.81 +/- 9.38) were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that quantitative analysis of the deceleration areas by digitized cardiotocography may have a discriminative capacity to predict fetal acidemia at delivery.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the correlation between the total deceleration area of the fetal heart rate (FHR) pre-delivery trace and intrapartum fetal acid-base status in a low risk population. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed the electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) traces of 26 pregnancies with fetuses presenting acidemia at delivery and those of thirty controls. All laboring patients had at least 1 hour of EFM without interruption. The deceleration area was calculated, after digital analysis, with Autocad System 2004. RESULTS: We found that the number of decelerations (8.03 +/- 3.77 vs. 4.64 +/- 3.84) and the total deceleration area/hour (35.56 +/- 11.87 vs. 17.81 +/- 9.38) were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that quantitative analysis of the deceleration areas by digitized cardiotocography may have a discriminative capacity to predict fetal acidemia at delivery.
Authors: Alison G Cahill; Methodius G Tuuli; Molly J Stout; Julia D López; George A Macones Journal: Am J Obstet Gynecol Date: 2018-02-01 Impact factor: 8.661