Fetal blood and tissue ph with variable deceleration patterns

Continuous tissue pH, scalp blood pH, and umbilical artery pH were studied in 89 patients with variable decelerations and 5 control patients in labor. The characteristics the variable decelerations were analyzed. The deceleration pattern was classified as variable without late component (V), variable with late onset (VLO), or variable with late recovery (VLR). The patterns with a late component showed a greater incidence of falling pH during the decelerations. The VLR pattern was very likely to show a tendency fetal acidosis and a high incidence of low Apgar scores. Variable decelerations without a late component were found to be innocuous. The VLO was an intermediate pattern, often progressing to the potentially more hazardous pattern of VLR.