Digital Foetal Scalp Stimulation Versus Foetal Blood Sampling to Assess Foetal Well-Being in Labour: A Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial.

Objective: To establish whether digital foetal scalp stimulation (dFSS) performs better than foetal blood sampling (FBS) in terms of reducing the rate of caesarean section (CS) in labour, without adversely affecting perinatal outcomes.

Design: A multicentre parallel-group randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Maternity centres in Ireland.

Is There Evidence of an Association Between Acute Health Care Utilization and Function in Older Adults Over Time? A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background And Objectives: Acute health care use varies by age, with older adults the highest users of acute health care services. Using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), the aim of this study was to investigate the association between acute health care utilization (emergency department [ED] visit with or without hospitalization) at baseline and subjective and objective measures of function measured at 4-year follow-up.

Research Design And Methods: This study represents a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study, where data from Wave 1 (baseline) and Wave 3 of TILDA were analyzed in conjunction with a public and patient involvement group of older adults.

Digital fetal scalp stimulation (dFSS) versus fetal blood sampling (FBS) to assess fetal wellbeing in labour-a multi-centre randomised controlled trial: Fetal Intrapartum Randomised Scalp Stimulation Trial (FIRSST NCT05306756).

Background: Cardiotocography (CTG) is a screening test used to detect fetal hypoxia in labour. It has a high false positive rate resulting in many potentially unnecessary caesarean sections. Fetal blood sampling (FBS) is a second-line test of the acid-base status of the fetus.