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Fetal movement is an important biological index of fetal well-being. Since 2008, we have been developing an original capacitive acceleration sensor and device that a pregnant woman can easily use to record fetal movement by herself at home during sleep. In this study, we report a newly developed automated software system for analyzing recorded fetal movement. This study will introduce the system and compare its results to those of a manual analysis of the same fetal movement signals (Experiment I). We will also demonstrate an appropriate way to use the system (Experiment II). In Experiment I, fetal movement data reported previously for six pregnant women at 28-38 gestational weeks were used. We evaluated the agreement of the manual and automated analyses for the same 10-sec epochs using prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) including quantitative indicators for prevalence and bias. The mean PABAK value was 0.83, which can be considered almost perfect. In Experiment II, twelve pregnant women at 24-36 gestational weeks recorded fetal movement at night once every four weeks. Overall, mean fetal movement counts per hour during maternal sleep significantly decreased along with gestational weeks, though individual differences in fetal development were noted. This newly developed automated analysis system can provide important data throughout late pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: The gender-specific influences of various confounding factors, including apnea, age, BMI, and cigarette consumption, on the function of the parasympathetic nerve system (PNS) during sleep in OSA patients has never been investigated. METHODS: One hundred ninety-seven males and 63 females with OSA were subjected to full PSG examinations including assessment of R-R intervals (RRIs) during an overnight ECG. The PNS-derived modulatory effect on the RRIs and the variability of this effect were quantified during REM and NREM using instantaneous time-frequency analysis with complex demodulation. The spectral domain with the maximum instantaneous amplitude in the high-frequency band between 0.15 and 0.4 Hz was defined as the main HF peak and used as a surrogate marker of PNS discharge. Based on density-spectrum-array maps of the main HF peaks (HF-DSA map), shifts in the central frequency of the main HF peak over time were continuously observed. When the main HF peaks on the HF-DSA maps maintained the same central frequency for more than 20 sec or 5 min, the PNS functions were considered to be "stable" or "very stable", respectively. RESULTS: Apneas enhanced PNS-derived cardiac-modulation during REM in males, but more importantly, they made PNS-function unstable during both REM and NREM in males and during NREM in females. Aging blunted the PNS-derived cardiac-modulation during both REM and NREM regardless of gender, but aging had no impact on the stability of PNS-function. BMI blunted PNS-eliciting cardiac-modulation during REM in males and during NREM in both males and females. BMI made the PNS unstable during REM in females. Neither height nor cigarette consumption influenced any PNS-related parameter. CONCLUSIONS: The PNS-derived cardiac-modulation was generally inhibited by aging and obesity, in which the effect of obesity was gender-specific. The PNS instability at nighttime was mainly induced by apneas but by obesity particularly during REM in females.

Study Objectives: Sleep spindles play a crucial role in multiple neuronal network functions. Initiation and termination of spindles are regulated by the thalamic reticular nucleus and thalamocortical network, and the spindle can be an index for brain organization. We conducted a preliminary study of the parameters of sleep spindles, focusing on sleep-stage temporal distribution in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with normal intelligence/developmental quotients. Methods: We performed overnight polysomnography in 14 children with ASD (4-10 years) with normal full-scale intelligence quotient/developmental quotient (≥75) and 14 community samples (CS) of children. Sleep stages were scored according to the Rechtschaffen and Kales criteria. Spindle parameters were quantified and compared between these groups and the identified subgroups. Results: Sleep parameters did not differ between the ASD and CS groups, except for a higher rate of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration in ASD. Spindle parameters did not significantly differ between the groups, but spindle density was distributed in a broader range in the ASD group. Five children with ASD had a higher spindle density in stage 3 than in stage 2. The ratio of spindle density in stage 3 to that in stage 2 (stage 3/2 ratio) was significantly higher in ASD than in CS cases. Conclusions: The lower spindle density in stage 2 and relatively higher density in stage 3 in children with ASD may represent an abnormal generation of spindles due to insufficient maturation of the thalamic reticular nucleus and thalamocortical network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]