[Fetal movement and acceleration behavior in hypertension in pregnancy]

Under standardized conditions, 26 pregnant women with pregnancy-related hypertension of different degrees were submitted to cardiogram-synchronous recording of fetal body and respiratory movements. The gestational age was between the completed 34th and 38th weeks. Of the 26 fetuses of the risk group, 20 were normotrophic and 6 hypotrophic. 40 normotrophic unimpaired fetuses of the same gestational age served as a control group. The average duration of the examination period was 70 minutes. The fetal movement and acceleration behaviours did not differ between the normotrophic fetuses of the risk group and those of the control group. The hypotrophic fetuses from the risk group, however, had significantly lower fetal body and respiratory activities than the normotrophic fetuses from this group. The same holds true for the degrees of heart rate activity. It can be concluded that pregnancy-related hypertension as the only pregnancy complication does not have a measurable influence on fetal movement and acceleration behaviours. This is true for both treated and untreated pregnancy-related hypertensions. The severity of pregnancy-related hypertension is not primarily reflected in changes of fetal movement and acceleration behaviours, either. This means that the parameters presented are not suited to prognosticate the effects of pregnancy-related hypertension on the fetus a priori. The situation becomes quite different if in addition to pregnancy-related hypertension some intrauterine fetal growth retardation develops. In this case, the fetus indicates its impairment by increasingly impaired movement and heart rate activities as a consequence of chronic oxygen deficiency.