[The surveillance of pregnancies with suspected placental dysfunction. II. Antepartum fetal heart rate: the significance of baseline levels and accellerations (author's transl)].

Baseline tachycardia was observed in 12% of 265 fetuses, baseline bradycardia in 19%. No statistical difference can be found between the different groups. Baseline levels were without the normal range in only 4 of the 13 antepartum deaths. Therefore neither tachycardia nor bradycardia is a reliable sign of chronical fetal hypoxia. Accelerations were constant absent only few days before the intrauterine death.