Scientists develop greater accuracy in recording baby's in utero heart rates.

2003 SEP 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team from Imperial College London based at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea, Hammersmith, and the Royal Brompton Hospitals has worked with equipment developed by scientists at QinetiQ, Europe's largest science and technology organization, to study the heart rate of unborn babies in minute detail.

The technique, reported in the August 2003 British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, will allow doctors to monitor the health of babies' hearts and obtain the full fetal ECG (fECG), particularly during high-risk pregnancies, such as where the mother suffers from diabetes or pre-eclampsia or where there is a family history of serious arrhythmia such as Long QT syndrome. These conditions can affect the baby, sometimes resulting in a still birth or sudden death in later life.

Dr. Myles J.O. Taylor from Imperial College London and the Hammersmith Hospital said, "Although it has been possible to record the fECG from the baby in the womb since the 1960s, the technique has not been totally reliable, as it is difficult to separate the heart rate from background interference. This new technique will allow us to accurately record and analyze the fetal ECG, not just in single pregnancies, but also in multiple pregnancies, which we believe is a world first."

The researchers used electrodes placed on the maternal abdomen to record the data, which are then relayed back to a computer ...