Comparative Assessment of 24-hour Fetal Monitoring Methods Based on Cardiac Rhythm

Ekaterina Yurievna Kiseleva¹, Artem Shamilyevich Bureev¹, Sergey Yurievich Yuriev², Dmitry Sergeevich Zhdanov^1,3, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Zilberman³

¹Diagnostika + Limited Liability Company, office 406, Akademichesky Avenue, Tomsk, Russia, 634055 ²Siberian State Medical University, 634050, Moskovsky Trakt, Tomsk, Russia, 634050 ³National Research Tomsk State University, 634050, Tomsk, Russia, Lenina avenue, 36

ABSTRACT: The problem of monitoring maternal and fetal health and developing devices for 24-hour monitoring is topical at the moment taking into account a reduction in the level of fertile-age women’s health and changes in the concept of perinatal medicine with reconsideration of live birth criteria. Such devices will allow significantly reducing the antenatal fetal mortality rate due to continuous monitoring over the state of fetus regardless of mother’s location. The goal of this article is performing an analytical review of existing methods used to assess the state of the fetal cardiovascular system in order to reveal their benefits and drawbacks. Speaking about existing methods used to assess the state of the fetal cardiovascular system, it is possible to single out auscultation, fetal electrocardiography, cardiotocography (the current gold standard), magnetocardiography and phonocardiography. Among all the existing methods assessing the state of fetus based on the cardiac rhythm, only fetal electrocardiography and cardiotocography are realized in the form of portable 24-hour monitoring devices. These devices have certain drawbacks. In the authors’ opinion, the most promising method for 24-hour fetal monitoring based on the cardiac rhythm is   phonocardiography. When introducing this method into medical practice, it is necessary to solve the task of receive stable signals in case of various types of fetal presentation and mother’s anthropometric data.

KEYWORDS: fetal monitoring; fetal electrocardiography; cardiotocography; magnetocardiography; phonocardiography; auscultation

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