Trends in pulse oximetery derived heart rate variations in healthy newborns in the first few days of life

Heart rate (HR) forms an important aspect of newborn assessment, intensive care monitoring and early warning scores for babies in the postnatal ward and those who are transferred to the neonatal unit.¹ Because term babies who are born healthy do not routinely undergo HR monitoring, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the normal values and variations in their heart rate.

Dr Prakash Kannan Loganathan^1,2
Neonatal Consultant
pkannanloganathan@nhs.net
(ORCID: 0000-0003-3717-8569)

Dr Difu Shi²
Research Fellow

Dr Giorgio Manzoni²
Research Scientist

Dr Carlton Baugh²
Physics Professor

Dr Yacov Rabi³
Professor in department for paediatrics

¹James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
²Department of Physics, University of Durham
³University of Calgary, Canada

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Keywords

bradycardia; pulse oximetry; tachycardia; newborn; heart rate

Key points

Heart rate is an important vital sign in newborn assessment and is an integral part of newborn early warning score.
Limited knowledge exists with regards to normative values and variations in heart rate in the first few days of life.

Also published in Infant:

VOLUME 21 ISSUE 5/OCTOBER 2025

Oxygen saturation and pulse rate variations with neonatal state: A prospective observational study

This prospective study includes all term newborns (≥37 weeks) after six hours of birth, with normal examination, born at three hospitals in Canada from March 2014 to September 2015 and admitted to the postnatal unit. The consented infants underwent 10 minutes of blinded pre-ductal recordings under direct supervision with the assignment of neonatal state, which was repeated every 12-24 hours before discharge.