Using continuous wireless patient monitoring to check a mother’s temperature during labour could aid detection of newborns at risk of early onset of sepsis (EOS) faster than current practice.

This would enable earlier and more effective targeted treatment of affected infants.

Maternal fever during labour is the strongest predictor of EOS. Current standard obstetric practice is to measure oral temperature intermittently, which means symptoms of fever can sometimes be missed.

A study using the Patient Status Engine, a wireless monitoring platform designed and developed by Isansys Lifecare, a clinical team at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York, compared continuous and intermittent (standard care) temperature data from over 150 women during labour. It concluded that continuous measurement of maternal temperature provides better data than manual oral observations for predicting which babies may have a higher risk of infection in their first few days of life.

“Wireless continuous temperature measurements are feasible and practical and provide a more accurate assessment of maternal fever during labour,” said the team carrying out the efficacy study. “Current measurements of maternal temperature during labour are invasive, unpleasant, intermittent and somewhat subjectively performed. Continuous temperature monitoring during labour contributes to a more accurate assessment of risk to the early-onsets of sepsis and facilitates timely and appropriate treatment of infection, improving clinical outcomes for newborns.”

The wireless measurements in the study were taken with the Isansys Lifetemp, a continuous real-time clinical thermometer. Other parameters including heart rate, respiration rate and heart rate variability were also measured on the mothers using the Isansys Lifetouch, a CE and FDA certified and wireless cardiac sensor.

These new and very large datasets are currently being analysed to see if there is hidden information that could provide additional insights relating to maternal temperature and other physiological mechanisms that may have significance during labour.