COMPUTERIZED ANALYSIS OF FETAL HEART RATE

Fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring is widely used in the monitoring of high risk fetuses. Moreov£r its efficacy in improving perinatal outcome has been consistenüy questioned (1). One major problem in assessing the diagnostic efficacy of this technique is the subjective nature of the evaluation and several studies have shown poor intra-observer and inter-observer agreement. Furthermore fetal behavioral states greatly influences the characteristics of FHR patterns and they must be recognized and taken into account in the identification of fetal distress. To reduce the former problem different automatic Systems of analysis of fetal heart rate have been deveioped. However limitations in the identification of the FHR baseline äs well äs lack of consideration of fetal behavior have been recentiy underlined in such Systems. In order to minimize these problems we deveioped a new computerized System (2CTG) for the fully automated and on line analysis of FHR patterns based on a solid identification of FHR baseline and on behavioral patterns recognition (2,3).