What is the “normal” fetal heart rate?

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Introduction

Material and Methods

CTG database for exploration and validation

Investigated variables

Formulation of the normal fetal heart rate range

Validation scheme and statistical methodology

Results

Patient characteristics

Fetal heart rate analysis

  1. The upper limit of the FHR should be 160 bpm.

  2. The lower limit should be either 115 or 120 bpm.

Discussion

Additional Information and Declarations

Competing Interests

Martin Daumer is Director of the Sylvia Lawry Centre for MS Research. He is also one of the two managing directors of Trium Analysis Online GmbH, together with Michael Scholz (50% ownership each). Trium is a manufacturer of CTG monitoring systems.

Dr. Daumer serves on the scientific advisory board for the EPOSA study; has received funding for travel from ECTRIMS; serves on the editorial board of MedNous; is co-author with Michael Scholz on patents re: Apparatus for measuring activity (Trium Analysis Online GmbH), method and device for detecting a movement pattern (Trium Analysis Online GmbH), device and method to measure the activity of a person (Trium Analysis Online GmbH), co-Author with Christian Lederer of device and method to determine the fetal heart rate from ultrasound signals (Trium Analysis Online GmbH), author of method and device for detecting drifts, jumps and/or outliers of measurement values, coauthor of patent applications with Michael Scholz of device and method to determine the global alarm state of a patient monitoring system, method of communication of units in a patient monitoring system, and system and method for patient monitoring; serves as a consultant for University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Southampton, Charite, Berlin, University of Vienna, Greencoat Ltd, Biopartners, Biogen Idec, Bayer Schering Pharma, Roche, and Novartis; and receives/has received research support from the EU-FP7, BMBF, BWiMi, and Hertie Foundation.

Nadja Harner was an employee of Trium, Anne-Laure Boulesteix was an employee of the SLC when the study was conducted.

There is no known financial or other conflict of interests for the other authors.

Author Contributions

Stephanie Pildner von Steinburg conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper.

Anne-Laure Boulesteix and Martin Daumer conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.

Christian Lederer analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, critical review of manucript.

Stefani Grunow analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.

Sven Schiermeier performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper.

Wolfgang Hatzmann performed the experiments, and critical review of mansucript.

Karl-Theodor M. Schneider conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, and critical review of manuscript.

Human Ethics

The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e. approving body and any reference numbers):

The work program and the corresponding contracts were approved by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Technische Universität München and the legal department of the Technische Universität München, and by the Ludwig Maximilians University (cooperation contract in the context of Sonderforschungsbreich SFB 386, subproject B2 “Statistische Analyse diskreter Strukturen - Dynamische Modelle zur Ereignisanalyse, from April 28, 2005).

Patent Disclosures

The following patent dependencies were disclosed by the authors:

Martin Daumer is the inventor of: method and device for detecting drifts, jumps and/or outliers of measurement values, US Patent 6,556,957, April 29, 2003, German Patent application Nr. 198 39 047.5-35, Nov. 11, 2005, European Patent 1097439 (99939929.8-2215), March 3, 2004.

Funding

There was no funding for the study or for publication, but the Sylvia Lawry Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research, Munich, Germany, has received support from the Porticus Foundation in the context of the “International School for Clinical Bioinformatics and Technical Medicine”.

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