[Dynamic tests for monitoring fetal cardiac rhythm]

The oxytocic test was compared in 354 cases of "high risk" pregnancy with the simple recording of fetal heart rate. When the tracing of the simple recording was normal, the oxytocic test revealed a frankly pathological tracing in only 2.5 p. cent of cases. By contrast, if there were abnormal signs in the simple record, the oxytocic test was pathological in only 18.8 p. cent of cases. The test has only a relative value, as indicated by analyses of modes of labor and of the state of the child at birth.