suMMARY Twenty-four-hour electrocardiograms were recorded in the first 10 days of life on 134 healthy full-term infants with birthweights greater than 2-5 kg. The highest heart rate a minute, measured over nine beats, was 175±19 (SD). The This study shows that normal infants have variations in heart rate and rhythm hitherto considered to be abnormal.The range of heart rate and nature of heart rhythms are poorly documented in normal healthy infants. Twenty-four-hour recordings of the electrocardiogram provide an accurate means of measuring heart rate and rhythm over long periods. The technique does not seriously interfere with normal behaviour and therefore documentation of changes in rhythm and rate is possible during activities such as sleeping, feeding, or crying. This report describes the results of single 24-hour recordings of the electrocardiogram on 134 healthy full-term neonates who weighed over 2-5 kg at birth. Patients and methodsStudies were made between birth and 10 days of age (the normal period of postnatal hospitalisation in this area) on 134 randomly selected infants born in West Dorset between January 1977 and June 1978. They were all healthy and recordings were performed in the maternity ward before discharge home. All infants studied had normal standard 12 lead electrocardiograms with a 10-second rhythm strip. They were studied under standard maternity ward environmental conditions and were fed and handled normally by their mothers during the recording period.Received for publication 5 July 1979 The recordings were made onto a Medilog cassette recorder* and the tapes were analysed for the presence of arrhythmias using a playback system* and arrhythmia detector*, by a trained technician. The Medilog recorder and analyser incorporated a synclock mechanism which, by providing and processing a reference time signal, ensured that possible variations in tape speed did not produce artefactual rhythm or rate disorders. Mothers were encouraged to handle their babies in the normal way while recordings were taken.Heart rates during activity and rest were measured by a histogram module in the analyser*. Histograms of the distribution of different heart rates (as obtained by continuous measurement of all intervals) were made on 79 babies during approximately two hours each of activity and rest.The maximum heart rates, measured by direct electrocardiographic analysis, over nine consecutive beats were recorded. The minimum rates found over three, five, and nine consecutive beats were also measured in this way and the heart rhythm at this time (whether sinus or junctional) was noted.
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