Evidence mapPaperPMID 41864912Full record

ArticleBMC medicine2026

Artificial intelligence-based prediction of fetal hypoxia: a multicenter model development and nationwide AI-human comparison.

Suiwen Lin, Xiaodan Di, Minrong Yao, Yun Xu, Hao Wei, Zhonghua Shi, Runrun Hao, Ningning Wu, Dong Wang, Zilian Wang and 1 more

Abstract readMulticenter StudyComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Suiwen LinDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, 58 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
Xiaodan DiDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Minrong YaoDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sanming First Hospital, Sanming, Fujian, China.
Yun XuDepartment of Endocrinology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Hao WeiDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Zhonghua ShiChangzhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changzhou Medical Center, Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Runrun HaoChangzhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changzhou Medical Center, Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Ningning WuNational Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Dong WangNational Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Zilian WangDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, 58 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
Bin LiuDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, 58 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China. liubn@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China 82371689Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases-National Science and Technology Major Project 2024ZD0532100
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFetal hypoxia is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Cardiotocography (CTG) is widely used to predict fetal hypoxia during labor, but its interpretation remains suboptimal. Artificial intelligence (AI) models have been developed for CTG interpretation, but their clinical utility is limited by two major challenges: demonstrating superiority over human experts and ensuring explainability in real-world settings.

methodsA large dataset containing CTG traces from three tertiary hospitals between January 2014 and May 2022 was built for model development. Deep learning architectures, named Cardiotocography Artificial-intelligence Predictors (CAPs), were trained to predict fetal hypoxia from CTG traces based on CNN (CAP-C), Transformer (CAP-T), LSTM (CAP-L), and CfC (CAP-CfC) algorithms. The outcome was fetal hypoxia, determined by either low Apgar score (≤ 7 at 1 or 5 min) or umbilical artery acidemia (grade 1: pH of umbilical artery (pHa) < 7.20; grade 2: pHa < 7.15; grade 3: pHa < 7.10). Model performance was determined by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), evaluated through nationwide AI-human comparison and validated on the CTU-UHB dataset. Gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) was applied to highlight the CTG regions that contributed most to the model's predictions.

resultsA total of 20,780 CTG traces were obtained for model development, and 467 cases were held out for the nationwide AI-human comparison. Among all models, CAP-L achieved highest AUROC in predicting fetal hypoxia (grade 1: 0.758, 95% CI: 0.754-0.761; grade 2: 0.770, 95% CI: 0.764-0.776; grade 3: 0.716, 95% CI: 0.700-0.732). In comparison with 10,571 expert responses, all CAP models achieved higher AUROC (0.757-0.789 vs. 0.715, P values in Delong test < 0.05). On the public CTU-UHB dataset, CAP-L achieved AUROC of 0.709, 0.727, and 0.730 in predicting fetal hypoxia with grade 1, 2, and 3 acidemia. Grad-CAM analysis showed that the CAP models leveraged variable and prolonged decelerations to predict fetal hypoxia, verified by perturbation-based faithfulness test.

conclusionsThe CAP algorithms developed in this study showed superior performance in detecting fetal hypoxia from CTG traces compared to human experts, and demonstrated promising explainability, supporting clinical CTG interpretation.

trial registrationClinical trial registration number: ChiCTR2100045316, ChiCTR2100052695, ChiCTR2400085338.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceCardiotocographyFetal HypoxiaAlgorithmsDeep LearningFemaleHumansPrediction AlgorithmsPredictive Learning ModelsPregnancyROC CurveAI-human comparisonArtificial intelligenceDeep learningExplainabilityFetal hypoxia

Identifiers

PMID41864912
PMCPMC13130792

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.