Recording and analysis of fetal heart rate variability is still the most common method for detection of early symptoms of fetal hypoxia. However, fetal heart rate obtained via ultrasound describes only mechanical activity of fetus heart. Limitations of this technique have stimulated the development of fetal electrocardiography. It ensures more precise determination of fetal heart rate and, whic...

BACKGROUND Noninvasive prenatal detection of common fetal aneuploidies with cell-free DNA from maternal plasma has been achieved with high-throughput next-generation sequencing platforms. Turnaround times for previously tested platforms are still unsatisfactory for clinical applications, however, because of the time spent on sequencing. The development of semiconductor sequencing technology has...

One of the basic problems in the analysis of the rhythm and the shape of the fetal ECG (FECG) is the interference caused by the electrical activity of the maternal heart (MECG). Methods devised for suppressing the maternal signals in the abdominally recorded leads obviously have to rely on differences in the characteristics of both kinds of signals. In the past various differences have been emp...

INTRODUCTION Intrapartum fetal monitoring is essential for the identification of fetal hypoxia to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality. Cardiotocography is associated with low specificity for fetal acidosis and poor perinatal outcome leading to unnecessary operative deliveries. ST waveform analysis of the fetal electrocardiogram has been shown to be a promising adjunctive intrapartum assess...

Even though the use of anti-D immunoglobulin has dramatically decreased the incidence of hemolytic disease of fetus and newborn, it still remains a significant cause of fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. The main challenge facing fetal medicine specialists today is not the skill required for invasive therapy, but rather the noninvasive monitoring of the disease so that its progress can...

We evaluated the system accuracy of noninvasive prenatal diagnosis for abnormal chromosome genetic diseases using cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma. Previous studies were searched in the MEDLINE database using the following keywords: "prenatal" and "aneuploidy" and "noninvasive or non-invasive" and "maternal". Identified studies were filtered using a QUADAS instrument. Four studies were id...

Non-invasive fetal electrocardiography (NI-FECG) is a promising alternative continuous fetal monitoring method that has the potential to allow morphological analysis of the FECG. However, there are a number of challenges associated with the evaluation of morphological parameters from the NI-FECG, including low signal to noise ratio of the NI-FECG and methodological challenges for getting refere...

Fetal heart monitoring yields vital information about the fetus health and can support medical decision making in critical situations. A compound signal is obtained non-invasively by placing electrodes on the abdomen area of the mother which contains maternal and fetal ECG signals contaminated by various other signals from body and externally induced noises. The Polynomial Networks technique ha...

Featured Article: Lo YMD, Tein MSC, Lau TK, Haines CJ, Leung TN, Poon PMK, et al. Quantitative analysis of fetal DNA in maternal plasma and serum: implications for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. Am J Hum Genet 1998;62:768 –75. There has been a multidecade search for noninvasive methods of prenatal diagnosis. In 1997, my group reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma and ...

ST waveform analysis of fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) for intrapartum surveillance (STAN) is a newly introduced method for fetal surveillance. The purpose of this commentary is to assist in the proper use of fetal ECG in combination with cardiotocography (CTG) during labour. Guidelines and recommendations concerning CTG and ST waveform interpretation and classification are stated that were agre...