ABSTRACT
Fetal heart rate patterns from 15 cases of in utero bacterial fetal sepsis were reviewed.
All patterns contained some abnormality, the most common being persistent tachycardia.
Ninety-three percent of fetuses had periodic decelerations, which were either late
or variable in nature. Neither maternal fever nor fetal tachycardia was invariably
present during fetal infection. Although fetal sepsis was associated frequently with
fetal heart rate pattern aberrations, no specific pattern was identified that was
consistently or uniquely related to infection.
