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Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of power spectral analysis on fetal heart rate variability as a new diagnostic method of fetal distress., Study Design: Among 76 pregnant women who underwent computerized electronic fetal monitoring and cord blood gas analysis, we divided them into three groups: normal fetus group (36); presumed distress group (26); and acidemic distress group (14). In order to perform linear analysis on the raw data of the fetal heart rate, after resampling, we performed Fourier transformation and investigated power distributions among very low frequency (VLF), low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) bands, and autonomic balance (LF/HF)., Results: The results of the spectral analysis showed that in normal fetus group, the difference in the distribution of power spectrums of VLF, LF and HF was significantly higher than in presumed distress group and acidemic distress group. In fetal distress, the LF and VLF value (< or = 0.0023, > or = 0.0437) were good predictors (sensitivity 97.5%, 75.0% and specificity 86.1%, 94.4%). The LF value (< or = 0.0013) was a good predictor in fetal acidemia (sensitivity 97.5% and specificity 86.1%)., Conclusions: A computerized spectral analysis of fetal heart rate variation is a good predictor of fetal distress, which is made automatically and objectively.

The effects of forskolin or phorbol-13-myristate (PMA) injected intrathecally (i.t.) or intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.) on the inhibition of the tail-flick and hotplate responses induced by morphine or beta-endorphin administered i.c.v. were studied. Animals pretreated with forskolin (20 micrograms) i.t. for 10 min had an attenuated inhibition of the tail-flick response induced by i.c.v. administered morphine (2 micrograms) or beta-endorphin (1 microgram). However, i.t. pretreatment with PMA (100 ng) was not effective in reducing the inhibition of the tail-flick response induced by morphine or beta-endorphin administered i.c.v. In addition, i.t. pretreatment with either forskolin or PMA did not affect the inhibition of the hotplate response induced by morphine or beta-endorphin administered i.c.v. Forskolin pretreatment i.c.v. for 10 min attenuated the inhibition of the tail-flick and hotplate responses induced by i.c.v. administered morphine or beta-endorphin. However, i.c.v. pretreatment with PMA was not effective in reducing the inhibition of the tail-flick or hotplate responses induced by morphine or beta-endorphin administered i.c.v. Our results suggest that activation of adenylate cyclase located at both spinal and supraspinal sites appears to be involved in antagonizing antinociception induced by morphine and beta-endorphin administered supraspinally. However, spinal or supraspinal protein kinase C may not be involved in antagonizing antinociception induced by morphine or beta-endorphin administered supraspinally.