[Acceleration behavior in the antepartum cardiotocogram and the condition of the newborn infant].

The prognostic value of fetal heart accelerations in the antepartal cardiotocogram (CTG) is analyzed with regard to fetal outcome. A total of 560 CTGs made one week before delivery were divided into five groups: newborns with cord around the neck, newborns with acidosis, newborns with fetal growth retardation, newborns with low Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes (Apgar-7), normal newborns as control group. In contrast to other publications, the present authors did not find accelerations in the antepartal CTG to be a definite positive prognostic sign. These observations indicate that fetal heart acceleration evaluation should not be included in a fetal heart score in the antepartal CTG.