Limitations of antenatal fetal heart rate monitors

Erroneous or doubtful decelerations in fetal heart traces were present in 111 of 1000 consecutive antenatal clinical records obtained by monitors with autocorrelation. The incidence was 20% in fetuses less than 30 weeks of gestational age. Their elimination reduced the number of "decelerative" records by 42%. Erroneous or doubtful accelerations were also present in 11% of records. These errors are caused by the fetal heart rate monitor and may contribute to the high intraobserver and interobserver variation on visual analysis. They can be detected by computer analysis.