Effects of fetal respiratory movements on the short-term fractal properties of heart rate variability

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of fetal respiratory movements (RM) on the heart rate (HR) fractal dynamics.Abdominal ECG recordings were collected from low-middle-risk pregnant woman at rest. Mean gestational age was 34.8 ± 3.7 weeks. Ultrasound images were simultaneously acquired determining if RM were exhibited by fetuses. 13 pairs of HR series were compared. Each pair included 5 min of data from the same fetus either during the manifestation of RM or when there was no persistent indication of them. Detrended fluctuation analysis was applied to these series for obtaining the scaling exponent α1. HR series were also assessed using the conventional parameters RMSSD and HF power.The main findings of this contribution were the lack of significant changes in the scaling exponent α1 of fetal HR fluctuations as a result of RM. By contrast, HF power and RMSSD did show significant changes associated with the manifestation of fetal RM (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). Yet the scaling exponent was the only parameter showing a significant relationship with the particular frequency of fetal RM (r s = 0.6, p < 0.03). Given the invariability of α1 regarding the manifestation of fetal RM, we consider that the HR short-term fractal properties are convenient for assessing the cardiovascular prenatal regulation.