Mortality reduction by heart rate characteristic monitoring in very low birth weight neonates: a randomized trial.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that heart rate characteristics (HRC) monitoring improves neonatal outcomes.

Study Design: We conducted a two-group, parallel, individually randomized controlled clinical trial of 3003 very low birth weight infants in 9 neonatal intensive care units. In one group, HRC monitoring was displayed; in the other, it was masked.