Non-invasive wearable devices may be able to predict preterm birth by monitoring changes in maternal heart rate variability. Credit: WHOOP, CC-BY 4.0
A team of obstetricians, gynecologists and data analysts from the West Virginia University School of Medicine and the West Virginia University School of Public Health, in collaboration with colleagues at WHOOP Inc., found evidence that wrist-based heart rate monitors could predict premature birth.
In their study, reported on the open access site PLOS ONEpregnant volunteers wore WHOOP monitors before giving birth.
Previous research has shown that after becoming pregnant, women experience heart rate variability, defined as fluctuations in the time between heartbeats. This variability decreases as the pregnancy progresses, around 33 weeks. At this point, variability begins to increase steadily until birth.
For this new study, the research team wondered whether the same changes in variability occurred in women who gave birth prematurely. To find out, they turned to WHOOP, a maker of strap-on wrist sensors that monitor heart rate, noting that a small study previously conducted with WHOOP researchers showed the device could be used to track heart rate. heart rate variability in pregnant women.
In the new study, 241 pregnant women of different nationalities living in 15 countries agreed to wear the device in the months before their delivery.
The researchers found that heart rate variability in women who gave birth on or near their due date matched previous findings: Variability decreased until about seven weeks before delivery. But things were markedly different for women who gave birth early: the patterns of variability were much less consistent. And the variability also began to steadily increase around seven weeks before delivery, which in their case was well before their due date.
The research team suggests that heart rate monitoring devices could become a new tool used by obstetricians to monitor their patients. Such devices, they note, could not only enable better prediction of due dates, but could also help use therapies designed to prolong at-risk pregnancies.
More information:
Summer R. Jasinski et al, Wearable-derived maternal heart rate variability as a novel digital biomarker of preterm birth, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295899
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