Cardiovascular System - Heart Rate Development

From Embryology
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Introduction

Heart rate (beats / minute) is a measurement that can be made from early in development (when the heart first starts) through embryonic and fetal stages into labor and birth. It is a common clinical diagnostic tool, but data can be variable between countries and institutions.

Early ultrasonographic measurement of embryonic heart rate (EHR) shows a steady increase from Stage 9-10 (75 beats/minute) to Stage 18 (130 beats/minute) and on to Stage 20, following which a gradual decrease in EHR occurs (More? Embryonic Heart Rate). This increase correlates with heart development and a low EHR is used as an indicator of developmental failure and likely abortion. Late stethoscope measurements of fetal heart rate can monitor fetal stress and identifies the characteristic "lub-dub" heart valve sounds.


Cardiovascular Links: cardiovascular | Heart Tutorial | Lecture - Early Vascular | Lecture - Heart | Movies | 2016 Cardiac Review | heart | coronary circulation | heart valve | heart rate | Circulation | blood | blood vessel | blood vessel histology | heart histology | Lymphatic | ductus venosus | spleen | Stage 22 | cardiovascular abnormalities | OMIM | 2012 ECHO Meeting | Category:Cardiovascular
Historic Embryology - Cardiovascular 
1902 Vena cava inferior | 1905 Brain Blood Vessels | 1909 Cervical Veins | 1909 Dorsal aorta and umbilical veins | 1912 Heart | 1912 Human Heart | 1914 Earliest Blood-Vessels | 1915 Congenital Cardiac Disease | 1915 Dura Venous Sinuses | 1916 Blood cell origin | 1916 Pars Membranacea Septi | 1919 Lower Limb Arteries | 1921 Human Brain Vascular | 1921 Spleen | 1922 Aortic-Arch System | 1922 Pig Forelimb Arteries | 1922 Chicken Pulmonary | 1923 Head Subcutaneous Plexus | 1923 Ductus Venosus | 1925 Venous Development | 1927 Stage 11 Heart | 1928 Heart Blood Flow | 1935 Aorta | 1935 Venous valves | 1938 Pars Membranacea Septi | 1938 Foramen Ovale | 1939 Atrio-Ventricular Valves | 1940 Vena cava inferior | 1940 Early Hematopoiesis | 1941 Blood Formation | 1942 Truncus and Conus Partitioning | Ziegler Heart Models | 1951 Heart Movie | 1954 Week 9 Heart | 1957 Cranial venous system | 1959 Brain Arterial Anastomoses | Historic Embryology Papers | 2012 ECHO Meeting | 2016 Cardiac Review | Historic Disclaimer
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Chicken embryo heart beat. Quicktime | Flash

Some Recent Findings

  • Normal Ranges of Embryonic Length, Embryonic Heart Rate, Gestational Sac Diameter and Yolk Sac Diameter at 6-10 Weeks [1] "We examined 4,698 singleton pregnancies with ultrasound measurements of CRL, HR, GSD and YSD at 6-10 weeks and CRL at 11-13 weeks resulting in the live birth after 36 weeks of phenotypically normal neonates with birth weight above the 5th centile. Gestational age was derived from CRL at the 11- to 13-week scan using the formula of Robinson and Fleming."

Textbooks

  • Human Embryology (2nd ed.) Larson Ch7 p151-188 Heart
  • The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (6th ed.) Moore and Persaud Ch14: p304-349
  • Before we Are Born (5th ed.) Moore and Persaud Ch12; p241-254
  • Essentials of Human Embryology Larson Ch7 p97-122 Heart
  • Human Embryology Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald Ch13-17: p77-111

Embryonic Heart Rate

In a 1996 study normal successful human gestations were defined by EHR criteria at different early embryonic (34-56 days from last menstrual period) developmental stages (at the earliest stages when embryo length is difficult to measure gestational sac diameters are included). [2]

  • Stage 9-10 2 mm embryo (gestational sac diameter of 20 mm) EHR at least 75 beats / minute
  • Stage 11-12 5 mm embryo (gestational sac diameter of 30 mm) EHR at least 100 beats / minute
  • Stage 16 10 mm embryo EHR at least 120 beats / minute
  • Stage 18 15 mm embryo EHR at least 130 beats / minute

Ultrasound Measurement

This movie is a realtime ultrasound recording of the week 12 fetus. The bottom window shows doppler analysis to measure the fetal heart rate.


Links: Quicktime | Flash

References

  1. <pubmed>20847544</pubmed>
  2. <pubmed>8921130</pubmed>

Reviews

<pubmed>20418904</pubmed> <pubmed>19732619</pubmed> <pubmed>17569640</pubmed>

Articles

<pubmed>20595708</pubmed> <pubmed>20492379</pubmed>

Search Pubmed

Search Nov 2010 "Embryonic Heart Rate" All (7589) Review (405) Free Full Text (794)


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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, March 28) Embryology Cardiovascular System - Heart Rate Development. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Cardiovascular_System_-_Heart_Rate_Development

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© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G