Abstract
The pre-ejection period (PEP) of the cardiac cycle, fetal heart rate, and uterine contractions were monitored in a series of unselected patients in labor to assess the practicality of our current Doppler ultrasound technique for detecting PEP and to relate any change in PEP to fetal status and fetal heart rate patterns. The results showed that with the dedicated efforts of a research team it is possible to obtain PEP patterns during labor, but that for general use PEP monitoring cannot yet be considered practical. However, its potential value was demonstrated with the observation that PEP changed clinically in a manner predicted in experiments with stressed fetal lambs—umbilical cord compression prolonged PEP and hypoxemia shortened it. These changes are essentially independent of heart rate and therefore PEP can be considered as an independent parameter for fetal assessment.
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