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. 2019 Mar;32(6):1044-1047.
doi: 10.1080/14767058.2017.1397120. Epub 2017 Nov 12.

Transabdominal recordings of fetal heart rate in extremely small fetuses

Hein Odendaal  1 , Coen Groenewald  1 , Gary D V Hankins  2 , Carlie du Plessis  1 , Michael M Myers  1   3   4   5 , William P Fifer  1   3   4   5 ; PASS Network
Affiliations

Transabdominal recordings of fetal heart rate in extremely small fetuses

Hein Odendaal et al. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: As part of the fetal assessment for the Safe Passage Study, we recorded raw data of the fetal ECG via five maternal abdominal wall electrodes from 20 weeks to 23 weeks 6 days' gestation.

Materials: For this study were extracted and analyzed the FHR patterns from the stored raw data in 16 stillbirths where the fetus weighed less than 1000 g and where autopsy was performed.

Results: Birth weights ranged from 190 to 970 g. The proportion FHR signal loss ranged from 0.3% to 21.1%. In the smallest fetus the heart weighed 1.3 g, yet the FHR signal loss was only 0.9%.

Keywords: Extremely small fetus; fetal heart rate patterns; stillbirth; transabdominal fECG.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The top panel displays 2 sec of data from one channel collected from the maternal abdomen at 300 Hz. The bottom panel shows the extracted fetal waveform with arrows pointing to the raw and extracted R waves used to determine the fetal RR intervals. The extracted fetal heart rate is demonstrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The smallest fetus weighed 190 g. Recording of the fetal heart rate (FHR) was done at 203. Demise occurred 32 days later. The heart weighed 1.3 g at autopsy. Recording speed 1 cm per minute. A small horizontal block corresponds to 30 seconds. The upper graph indicates the FHR and the lower one uterine activity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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