Non-invasive monitoring of fetal oxygen saturation

Background. Monitoring of fetal heart-rate is routinely used to judge fetal well-being, though bradycardia is a late sign of hypoxia. Objective. We developed a non-invasive method to directly measure fetal arterial oxygenation. Material and Method. In order to catch the fetal signal, we applied a light source and a photodetector onto the abdomen of pregnant women of about 35 wks gestation. Results. Using sophisticated signal processing techniques (patent pending) we succeeded in separating fetal und maternal pulse signal to a sufficient degree to determine fetal arterial oxygen saturation. Discussion. Although d…