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Review
. 2018 Aug 13;18(8):2648.
doi: 10.3390/s18082648.

Sensors for Fetal Hypoxia and Metabolic Acidosis: A Review

Gerard Cummins  1 , Jessica Kremer  2 , Anne Bernassau  3 , Andrew Brown  4 , Helen L Bridle  5 , Holger Schulze  6 , Till T Bachmann  7 , Michael Crichton  8 , Fiona C Denison  9 , Marc P Y Desmulliez  10
Affiliations
Review

Sensors for Fetal Hypoxia and Metabolic Acidosis: A Review

Gerard Cummins et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

This article reviews existing clinical practices and sensor research undertaken to monitor fetal well-being during labour. Current clinical practices that include fetal heart rate monitoring and fetal scalp blood sampling are shown to be either inadequate or time-consuming. Monitoring of lactate in blood is identified as a potential alternative for intrapartum fetal monitoring due to its ability to distinguish between different types of acidosis. A literature review from a medical and technical perspective is presented to identify the current advancements in the field of lactate sensors for this application. It is concluded that a less invasive and a more continuous monitoring device is required to fulfill the clinical needs of intrapartum fetal monitoring. Potential specifications for such a system are also presented in this paper.

Keywords: electrochemical sensing; fetal blood sampling; fetal monitoring; hypoxia; lactate; lactate hydrogenase; lactate oxidase; obstetrics; optical sensing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

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