Observational studyPloS one2018
Developmental milestones of the autonomic nervous system revealed via longitudinal monitoring of fetal heart rate variability.
Observational study in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 44 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prenatal stress and externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2024Pooled it
- A Review on the Vagus Nerve and Autonomic Nervous System During Fetal Development: Searching for Critical Windows.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Fetal Heart Rate Variability Is Affected by Fetal Movements: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in physiology · 2020Pooled it
- Higher maternal weight is related to poorer fetal autonomic function.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2021Trial
- Reduced heart rate variability predicts severe intraventricular haemorrhage in extremely preterm infants.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Information Dynamics of the Mother-Fetus System Using Kolmogorov-Sinai Entropy Derived from Heart Sounds: A Longitudinal Study from Early Pregnancy to Postpartum.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of Depressive Symptoms during the Second Trimester of Pregnancy on Maternal and Fetal Heart Rate Variability.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- A method for dyadic cardiac rhythmicity analysis: Preliminary evidence on bilateral interactions in fetal-maternal cardiac dynamics.Experimental physiology · 2025Article
- Investigating asymmetry in fetal and maternal heart rate accelerations and decelerations.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Development of autonomic innervation at the venous pole of the heart: bridging the gap from mice to human.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Prenatal tobacco, tobacco-cannabis coexposure, and child emotion regulation: The role of child autonomic functioning and sensitive parenting.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Antenatal Noninvasive Fetal Electrocardiography: A Literature Review.Maternal-fetal medicine (Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.) · 2024Review
- Placental Epigenome Impacts Fetal Development: Effects of Maternal Nutrients and Gut Microbiota.Nutrients · 2024Review
- The magnetocardiogram.Biophysics reviews · 2024Review
- Asthma, classical conditioning, and the autonomic nervous system - a hypothesis for why children wheeze.Archives of disease in childhood · 2024Review
- Exploring the Influence of Fetal Sex on Heart Rate Dynamics Using Fetal Magnetocardiographic Recordings.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2024Article
- Feasibility and reliability of fetal two dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography at 16 weeks gestational age: A pilot study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Analysis of fetal heart rate fluctuations in women diagnosed with preeclampsia during the latent phase of labor.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- The Impact of Maternal Gut Microbiota during Pregnancy on Fetal Gut-Brain Axis Development and Life-Long Health Outcomes.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Sympathetic nervous system activity and pain-related response indexed by electrodermal activity during the earliest postnatal life in healthy term neonates.Physiological research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFetal heart rate variability (fHRV) of normal-to-normal (NN) beat intervals provides high-temporal resolution access to assess the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
aimTo determine critical periods of fetal autonomic maturation. The developmental pace is hypothesized to change with gestational age (GA). STUDY
designProspective longitudinal observational study. SUBJECTS: 60 healthy singleton fetuses were followed up by fetal magnetocardiographic heart rate monitoring 4-11 times (median 6) during the second half of gestation. OUTCOME MEASURE: FHRV parameters, accounting for differential aspects of the ANS, were studied applying linear mixed models over four predefined pregnancy segments of interest (SoI: <27; 27+0-31+0; 31+1-35+0; >35+1 weeks GA). Periods of fetal active sleep and quiescence were accounted for separately.
resultsSkewness of the NN interval distribution VLF/LF band power ratio and complexity describe a saturation function throughout the period of interest. A decreasing LF/HF ratio and an increase in pNN5 indicate a concurrent shift in sympathovagal balance. Fluctuation amplitude and parameters of short-term variability (RMSSD, HF band) mark a second acceleration towards term. In contrast, fetal quiescence is characterized by sequential, but low-margin transformations; ascending overall variability followed by an increase of complexity and superseded by fluctuation amplitude.
conclusionsAn increase in sympathetic activation, connected with by a higher ability of parasympathetic modulation and baseline stabilization, is reached during the transition from the late 2nd into the early 3rd trimester. Pattern characteristics indicating fetal well-being saturate at 35 weeks GA. Pronounced fetal breathing efforts near-term mirror in fHRV as respiratory sinus arrhythmia.
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