Abstract
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%.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all the members of the Safe Passage Study for their dedicated work. The members of the PASS Network can be found at http://safepassagestudy.org. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the study participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.