Extended fetal monitoring by systematic analysis of fetal autonomic cardiovascular regulation

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Hagen Malberg; Professor Dr. Holger Stepan; Privatdozent Dr. Niels Wessel
• Subject Area: Biomedical Systems Technology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 375203892

The clinically available procedures for assessing the fetal health and development status are still too imprecise today and are only partially suitable for prognostic applications. In the early gestational age, they are sometimes not applicable at all. The aim of the project is to characterize the fetal condition during the early gestational age (20 - 28 weeks of pregnancy) by the analysis of fetal cardiovascular regulation. To this end, the innovative system-analytic approach is used to characterize the dynamics of fetal heart rate variability as a function of internal and external factors of influence, that is, to conduct a context-based fetal variability analysis. The information obtained from this is to be used in the future for preventive treatment, not least for the determination of the optimal time of onset of complications. In the context of a clinical study, the project will demonstrate for the first time, using biomedical methods of the context-based variability analysis, that (1) a characteristic longitudinal development of the fetal autonomous regulation can be shown and (2) the monitoring of this development is the basis for an improved supply of risk pregnancies, which can decisively influence the decision on interventions in the early gestational age.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Zaunseder