Accuracy of clinical assessment of infant heart rate in the delivery room

C Omar F Kamlin; Colm P F O'Donnell; Neil J Everest; Peter G Davis; Colin J Morley

doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.04.015

Accuracy of clinical assessment of infant heart rate in the delivery room

Resuscitation. 2006 Dec;71(3):319-21. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.04.015. Epub 2006 Sep 20.

Authors

C Omar F Kamlin¹, Colm P F O'Donnell, Neil J Everest, Peter G Davis, Colin J Morley

Affiliation

¹ Division of Newborn Services, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. omar.kamlin@rwh.org.au

PMID: 16989935
DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.04.015

Abstract

Heart rate (HR) dictates intervention during neonatal resuscitation. Guidelines recommend that HR be assessed by auscultation or palpation. We compared HRs determined clinically with electrocardiography (ECG) in healthy newborns in the delivery room. Clinical assessment by 23 observers randomly allocated to assess HR by one of two methods in 26 infants, was found to be inaccurate and underestimate ECG HR. The mean difference between HR assessed by auscultation and palpation ECG and HR using methodology recommended by the Neonatal Resuscitation Programme was 14 and 22 beats per minute respectively.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Delivery Rooms*
Electrocardiography*
Gestational Age
Heart Auscultation*
Heart Rate*
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Observer Variation
Palpation*
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Reference Values
Reproducibility of Results