Patient's question:
At full term, premature rupture of membranes, irregular contractions, fetal heart rate baseline at 140 beats per minute, and monitoring showing a sine wave pattern - what does this mean?Doctor's answer:
During fetal electronic monitoring, the fetal heart rate shows a sine wave pattern. Many authors believe that this indicates the fetus is at serious risk and is a sign that the fetus is nearing death. Currently, fetal heart monitoring devices are widely used. During fetal heart monitoring, the presence of abnormal fetal heart rate patterns is often used to indicate abnormal fetal heart activity. Most of the time, abnormal fetal heart activity represents fetal hypoxia in the uterus. The more severe the abnormal fetal heart rate, the more severe the fetal hypoxia is often implied. However, not all abnormal fetal heart rates are caused by hypoxia.