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A comparison of episodic heart‐rate patterns in the fetus and newborn
Author(s) -
VISSER G. H. A.,
CARSE E. A.,
GOODMAN J. D. S.,
JOHNSON P.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
bjog: an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.157
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1471-0528
pISSN - 1470-0328
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1982.tb04634.x
Subject(s) - fetus , quiet , heart rate , variation (astronomy) , fetal heart rate , medicine , sleep (system call) , cardiology , blood pressure , biology , pregnancy , physics , genetics , quantum mechanics , astrophysics , computer science , operating system
Summary. Fourier analysis was applied to episodes of high and low heart‐rate variation in the near‐term fetus. The spectral densities of the variations in pulse intervals from 1 to 7 cycles/min, were almost identical with those found by De Haan et al . (1977) in the newborn infant during both active and quiet sleep. A computer programme, designed to separate low and high heart‐rate variation episodes in the fetus, identified seven of the eight quiet sleep episodes in four infants. None of the other neonatal behavioural states had low heart‐rate variation. It was concluded that, with other published data, there is increasing, although indirect, evidence that low heart‐rate variation episodes indicate quiet sleep in the human fetus near term.