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Transabdominal recordings of fetal heart rate in extremely small fetuses
Hein Odendaal1, Coen Groenewald1, Gary D V Hankins2
1a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences , Stellenbosch University , Cape Town , South Africa.
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%.
