[Diagnosis of fetal heart rate without referring to uterine contraction].

The purpose of this study is to evaluate intrapartum fetal condition only with reference to fetal heart rate (FHR) change. Sixty-five cases who had no severe complications were examined at 36 weeks to 42 weeks of gestation. Major cardiotocographic abnormalities were baseline bradycardia and severe variable deceleration. Late deceleration was not observed. The conventional program of automatic FHR diagnosis and a new computer program excluding uterine contraction (UC) algorithm were used. Digitalized FHR and UC data stored in a floppy disk were reproduced and analysed by either of the programs with and without UC. FHR scores and FD index obtained by the 2 programs were highly correlated with each other. Both the FHR score and FD index showed a correlation to PO2, PCO2, BE and pH of umbilical artery blood. There were no significant differences between the correlation coefficients for the 2 methods. The sensitivity of the FD index which predicted a pH of umbilical artery blood lower than 7.25 was 86.4% in both groups. And the specificity was 88.4% in the results obtained with UC and 90.7% without UC. There was no significant difference in sensitivity or specificity in both groups.