| Sumario: | Background: We developed an open-source software for the computerized analysis of antenatal fetal cardiotocography (CTG) without limitation of duration of the registration, enabling batch processing and adaptation to any digital storage system. Methods: STVcalc was developed based on literature about the FetalCare system (Huntleigh Healthcare Ltd, Cardiff, UK). For comparison with FetalCare, we selected the CTGs of all women who delivered in 2011 a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetus between 24 and 31 weeks by cesarean section (CS) for fetal distress, or had fetal death, before labor onset. Results: In 471 CTGs from 39 women, the agreement was 99% for a short-term variation (STV) cut-off of 2.6 ms below 29 weeks and 3.0 ms thereafter, and 95% for 3.5 and 4.0 ms, respectively. In 18 (4%) cases, the proportional difference in STV between FetalCare and STVcalc was more than 10%. Conclusion: As only slight differences were observed between the proposed feature-rich application and the FetalCare system, it can be considered valuable for clinical practice and research purposes.
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