聯合使用ST段監測以及標準胎兒心率監測可以減少分娩時缺氧性腦損傷嬰兒數量以及不必要的剖腹產手術。

根據喬治亞醫學院研究人員的說法：單獨使用心率監測能夠提供可怕的錯誤的安全感，該醫學院是研究聯合應用心率監測與ST段監測項目的組長研究單位。被稱作STAN S21，這種胎兒心率監測系統是由Neoventa醫療公司研制開發的，現在正在一項800例分娩的臨床實驗中接受檢測。先前在英國和瑞典的8000例分娩中的研究發現，將血氣異常的嬰兒出生減少了50％，將不必要的剖腹產減少了20％；使用新系統監測的嬰兒沒有出現腦缺氧性損傷。

喬治亞醫學院婦產科主任、教授、首席研究員Lawrence D.Devoe解釋說：“這是第一項實質性的進步，將監測水平提升到了新的水平，有助于增加監測儀器的精確度，并幫助操作者獲得更好的臨床結論。”

研究該儀器的研究不是隨機的。在取得了家長知情同意書之后，該設備被用于妊娠至少36周的孕婦。胎兒是頭先露因此可以將電極放置于頭部而不是通過孕婦腹部來監測心率。Devoe醫生指出這種分娩處于高危險之中。

他還說：“我們關注的是已經接受測試的系統的可翻譯性并在其它國家進行證實。”

Fetal Monitoring That Reduces Brain Damage
 
Monitoring ST segment activity along with standard fetal heart rate during labor appears to reduce the number of babies born with hypoxic brain damage as well as unnecessary cesarean sections (C-sections).

Heart-rate monitoring alone can provide a horribly false sense of security, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, USA), the lead site for a study of a new system that combines heart monitoring with ST segment monitoring. Called STAN S21, the fetal heart monitor system was developed by Neoventa Medical (Molndal, Sweden) and is now being tested in a trial of some 800 labors. Prior studies during 8,000 labors in the United Kingdom and Sweden found a 50% reduction in babies born with abnormal blood gases, a 20% reduction in unnecessary C-sections, and no hypoxic brain damage in babies monitored with the new system.

“This is really the first practical breakthrough in moving the field of monitoring to the next level, that is helping the precision of the tool and helping people who use it to make better clinical decisions,” explained principal investigator Dr. Lawrence D. Devoe, professor and chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia.

The studies of the device are not randomized. With parental consent, the device is being used in pregnancies at least 36 weeks along, with the baby pointed head first and where there is enough concern to place an electrode on the head rather than monitor heart rate via the mother’s abdomen. Dr. Devoe classifies these labors at the “higher end of risk.”

“What we are looking at here is translatability of a system that has already been tested and proven in other countries,” he added.