Intermittent Auscultation for Intrapartum Fetal Heart Rate Surveillance: American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Fetal heart rate surveillance is a standard component of intrapartum care. The fetal heart rate can be evaluated using intermittent auscultation or electronic fetal monitoring. Research that has compared these 2 strategies found them to be equivalent with respect to long-term neonatal outcomes. The purpose of this clinical bulletin by the American College of Nurse-Midwives is to review the evidence for use of intermittent auscultation and provide recommendations for intermittent auscultation technique, interpretation, and documentation.

Intelligent Structured Intermittent Auscultation (ISIA): evaluation of a decision-making framework for fetal heart monitoring of low-risk women.

BACKGROUND: Research-informed fetal monitoring guidelines recommend intermittent auscultation (IA) for fetal heart monitoring for low-risk women. However, the use of cardiotocography (CTG) continues to dominate many institutional maternity settings. METHODS: A mixed methods intervention study with before and after measurement was undertaken in one secondary level health service to facilitate the implementation of an initiative to encourage the use of IA. The intervention initiative was a decision-making framework called Intelligent Structured Intermittent Auscultation (ISIA) introduced through an education session. RESULTS: Following the intervention, medical records review revealed an increase in the use of IA during labour represented by a relative change of 12%, with improved documentation of clinical findings from assessments, and a significant reduction in the risk of receiving an admission CTG (RR 0.75, 95% CI, 0.60-0.95, p = 0.016). CONCLUSION: The ISIA informed decision-making framework transformed the practice of IA and provided a mechanism for knowledge translation that enabled midwives to implement evidence-based fetal heart monitoring for low risk women.

Reversion of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and abnormal stress test: by catheter ablation, in a patient with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome from Para-Hisian Kent bundle.

The diagnosis of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is typically reserved for patients who experience ventricular pre-excitation and symptoms that are related to paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, such as chest pain, dyspnea, dizziness, palpitations, or syncope. Herein, we report the case of a 38-year-old woman who presented at our outpatient department because of exercise intolerance. Cardiac auscultation revealed a grade 2/6 pansystolic murmur over the left lower sternal border. Twelve-lead electrocardiography showed sinus rhythm at a rate of 76 beats/min, with a significant delta wave. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed abnormal left ventricular systolic function. The results of a thallium stress test were also abnormal. Coronary artery disease was suspected; however, coronary angiography yielded normal results. Electrophysiologic study revealed a para-Hisian Kent bundle and a dual atrioventricular nodal pathway. After radiofrequency catheter ablation was performed, the patient's left ventricular function improved and her symptoms disappeared. In Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, left ventricular systolic dyssynchrony can yield abnormal findings on echocardiography and thallium scanning--even in persons who have no cardiovascular risk factors. Physicians who are armed with this knowledge can avoid performing coronary angiography unnecessarily. Catheter ablation can reverse the dyssynchrony of the ventricle and improve the patient's symptoms.

[Intrapartum fetal vitality assessment]. / Avaliação da vitalidade fetal intraparto.

The incidence of morbidity and mortality resulting from perinatal hypoxia is variable around the world, reaching 33 to 1.000 alive newborns in developing countries. Although the greater part of cases of perinatal morbidity and morbidity cannot be prevented with labor monitoring, failure of appropriate actions are considered important contributing factors. Intrapartum cardiotocography have been largely used for monitoring of fetal heart rate and diagnosis of fetal well-being, but several studies suggest that there aren't advantages of this method when compared with intermittent auscultation in terms of improving neonatal outcome. Nowadays, other technologies have been proposed for fetal intrapartum assessment, like stimulation tests, near-infrared spectroscopy, fetal pulse oximetry and fetal electrocardiography.

The evidence for physiologic management of the active phase of the first stage of labor.

The active phase of first stage labor is generally defined as the period between 3 cm to 4 cm to complete cervical dilatation, in the presence of regular uterine contractions. Most women will experience this portion of labor within hospital obstetric units, where care commonly features restriction to bed, electronic fetal monitoring, early treatment of "slow" labors, and few pain management options beyond epidurals and narcotics. However, the available evidence on appropriate care for healthy childbearing women favors activity in labor, intermittent auscultation, patience from caregivers, and nonpharmacologic methods of pain relief. This article reviews the evidence for care practices that support physiologic labor. Modifying intrapartum care to reflect current evidence will improve women's health, and will require a multilevel approach and consistent midwifery demonstration of the model.

Soplos cardíacos funcionales en niños: ¿usted está capacitado para distinguir un soplo funcional de uno patológico? / Functional heart murmurs in children: you is trained for differentiate a functional murmur of a pathologic murmur?

Cerca del 70 por ciento de los soplos cardíacos detectados en la edad pediátrica son soplos originados en estructuras cardíacas normales. La incorrecta catalogación de un soplo cardíaco como soplo anormal genera gran inquietud en la familia y muchas veces también en el mismo niño, por lo tanto el pediatra debe poder definir los soplos funcionales. Este artículo es una guía para ayudar en dicho pronóstico

Effect of isradipine and nifedipine on diastolic function in patients with left ventricular dysfunction due to coronary artery disease: a randomized, double-blind, nuclear, stethoscope study.

To elucidate the effect of isradipine and nifedipine on left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function, each drug was given intravenously (i.v.) in equihypotensive doses to 10 patients accepted for coronary arteriography for stable angina pectoris. All 20 patients had LV ejection fraction (LVEF) of < 40% owing to previous myocardial infarction (MI). Systolic and diastolic function was assessed by standard hemodynamic parameters and pressure-volume relations measured by nuclear stethoscope. All measurements were taken at rest and during ischemia caused by right atrial pacing. Both systolic and diastolic parameters improved equally with isradipine and nifedipine. LVEF and cardiac output (CO) increased owing to peripheral vasodilatation. A decrease in P/Vmax, indicating a negative inotropic effect, was noted in patients at rest with both medications, but not during pacing-induced ischemia. With either medication, the time constant of relaxation and the end-diastolic elasticity constant decreased during pacing, indicating improvement in diastolic function, probably owing to relief of myocardial ischemia.

Análise comparativa da reatividade cardíaca fetal ao estímulo acústico, avaliada simultaneamente por ausculta e cardiotocografia / Comparative analysis of fetal cardiac reactivity to acoustic stimulation, evaluated simultaneously by auscultation and by cardiotocography

A avaliaçäo da reatividade cardíaca fetal ao estímulo acústico (EA) pela simples ausculta dos batimentos cardíacos fetais (BCF) é prática difundida em nosso meio, como método de rastreamento do bem-estar fetal. O objetivo deste trabalho foi comparar a reatividade cardíaca fetal ao EA, avaliada simultaneamente pela ausculta dos BCF através do sonar Doppler e pela cardiotocografia (CTG) estimulada com buzina Kobo de bicicleta, em gestantes normais. Realizamos estudo retrospectivo comparativo entre as duas metodologias, utilizando dados obtidos em estudo anterior. Analisamos os resultados de 28 exames de ausculta dos BCF através do sonar doppler realizados simultaneamente à CTG estimulada com buzina Kobo de bicicleta, obtidos de 28 grávidas normais, com idade gestacional entre 29 semanas e seis dias e 41 semanas e cinco dias. Os conceptos foram classificados em reativos, hiporreativos e näo reativos ao EA, através da ausculta e da CTG. O índice de concordância entre os dois métodos foi de 85,7 por cento, permitindo-nos concluir que a singela ausculta dos BCF através do sonar doppler é método de valor para o rastreamento da higidez fetal, em grávidas normais.

Auscultated fetal heart rate accelerations. III. Use of vibratory acoustic stimulation.

The auscultated acceleration test has been proposed as a simple, inexpensive screening test for fetal health; previous studies of the auscultated acceleration test used external stimulation to elicit fetal movement. This study was conducted to explore the ability of the auscultated acceleration test to predict nonstress test results when vibratory acoustic stimulation is used to elicit fetal reactivity. After antepartum nonstress testing on 100 gravid women between 28 and 43 weeks' gestation, a 6-minute auscultated acceleration test protocol was performed with two vibratory acoustic stimulations to the maternal abdomen if no spontaneous fetal heart rate acceleration occurred. The ability of the auscultated acceleration test to predict nonstress test results after selected variables were controlled for was as follows: sensitivity, 75%; specificity, 97.6%; false-positive results, 14.3%; and false-negative results, 4.7%. Logistic regression analysis indicated that, in addition to the auscultated acceleration test, gestational age and race contributed significantly to the prediction of nonstress test results. Although specificity and the false-positive rate were improved, the use of vibratory acoustic stimulations to elicit fetal movement did not improve the validity of the auscultated acceleration test in terms of sensitivity and false-negative results over previous studies. However, the auscultated acceleration test continues to show potential as an initial screening test for fetal assessment. In addition to recommendations for further research, methodologic issues related to sampling techniques are identified.