A Comparative Study of Fetal Heart Rate Variability Analysis Techniques

This study examines a novel methodology for continuous fetal heart rate variability (FHRV) assessment in a non-stationary intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR). The specific aim was to investigate simple statistics, dimension estimates and entropy estimates as methods to discriminate situations of low FHRV related to non-reassuring fetal status or as a consequence of sedatives given to the mother. Using a t-test it is found that the dimension of the zero set and Sample entropy reveal a difference in mean distribution of significance >99%. Thus it may prove possible to build a discriminating system based on either one or a combination of these techniques.