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Fetal health assessment
1University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
This review presents a possible rank order in which changes occur in blood flow velocity waveforms, fetal movements, and heart rate patterns in growth-retarded fetuses with progressive deterioration of the fetal condition. With antenatal fetal monitoring, hypoxemia can be diagnosed accurately. The impact of monitoring on (neurologic) morbidity is, however, limited and there is no evidence of a reduction of nervous system dysfunction (cerebral palsy) in newborn infants. Some remarks are made regarding the use of the electronic artificial larynx in fetal testing.
This review presents a possible rank order in which changes occur in blood flow velocity waveforms, fetal movements, and heart rate patterns in growth-retarded fetuses with progressive deterioration of the fetal condition. With antenatal fetal monitoring, hypoxemia can be diagnosed accurately. The impact of monitoring on (neurologic) morbidity is, however, limited and there is no evidence of a reduction of nervous system dysfunction (cerebral palsy) in newborn infants. Some remarks are made regarding the use of the electronic artificial larynx in fetal testing.