Extraction Of Fetal Electrocardiogram Using An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy System

In this paper, adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used for the cancellation of maternal electrocardiogram (MECG) in fetal electrocardiogram extraction (FECG) from the composite abdominal electrocardiogram (AECG). This technique is used to estimate the MECG present in the abdominal signal of a pregnant woman. The FECG is then extracted by subtracting the estimated MECG from the abdominal signal. In the furtherance of extraction, MATLAB (version 7.6) was used to code the system in order to generate the maternal heartbeat signal and the fetal heartbeat signal which were added to form the measured signal. For the fetal heartbeat signal to be recovered from the interference (maternal heartbeat) signal, a reference signal (which is a clean version of the original maternal heartbeat signal) was introduced in the system. It is this signal that cancelled the maternal heartbeat signal in the measured signal, thereby leaving the fetal heartbeat signal as an error signal. However, though the recovered signal still contained some traces of the maternal heartbeat signal, performance of the soft computing technique applied is in terms of the capability of adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system in removing the overlapping between the MECG and the FECG signals. The results obtained show that this method is a simple and powerful means for the extraction of Fetal Electrocardiogram.   Keywords: Fetal Electrocardiogram Extraction (FECG), Neuro-fuzzy system, Noise Cancellatio

Novel hybrid extraction systems for fetal heart rate variability monitoring based on non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram

This study focuses on the design, implementation and subsequent verification of a new type of hybrid extraction system for noninvasive fetal electrocardiogram (NI-fECG) processing. The system designed combines the advantages of individual adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms. The pilot study reviews two innovative hybrid systems called ICA-ANFIS-WT and ICA-RLS-WT. This is a combination of independent component analysis (ICA), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) algorithm or recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm and wavelet transform (WT) algorithm. The study was conducted on clinical practice data (extended ADFECGDB database and Physionet Challenge 2013 database) from the perspective of non-invasive fetal heart rate variability monitoring based on the determination of the overall probability of correct detection (ACC), sensitivity (SE), positive predictive value (PPV) and harmonic mean between SE and PPV (F1). System functionality was verified against a relevant reference obtained by an invasive way using a scalp electrode (ADFECGDB database), or relevant reference obtained by annotations (Physionet Challenge 2013 database). The study showed that ICA-RLS-WT hybrid system achieve better results than ICA-ANFIS-WT. During experiment on ADFECGDB database, the ICA-RLS-WT hybrid system reached ACC > 80 % on 9 recordings out of 12 and the ICA-ANFIS-WT hybrid system reached ACC > 80 % only on 6 recordings out of 12. During experiment on Physionet Challenge 2013 database the ICA-RLS-WT hybrid system reached ACC > 80 % on 13 recordings out of 25 and the ICA-ANFIS-WT hybrid system reached ACC > 80 % only on 7 recordings out of 25. Both hybrid systems achieve provably better results than the individual algorithms tested in previous studies.Web of Science713178413175

Non-invasive fetal monitoring: a maternal surface ECG electrode placement-based novel approach for optimization of adaptive filter control parameters using the LMS and RLS algorithms

This paper is focused on the design, implementation and verification of a novel method for the optimization of the control parameters (such as step size mu and filter order N) of LMS and RLS adaptive filters used for noninvasive fetal monitoring. The optimization algorithm is driven by considering the ECG electrode positions on the maternal body surface in improving the performance of these adaptive filters. The main criterion for optimal parameter selection was the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). We conducted experiments using signals supplied by the latest version of our LabVIEW-Based Multi-Channel Non-Invasive Abdominal Maternal-Fetal Electrocardiogram Signal Generator, which provides the flexibility and capability of modeling the principal distribution of maternal/fetal ECGs in the human body. Our novel algorithm enabled us to find the optimal settings of the adaptive filters based on maternal surface ECG electrode placements. The experimental results further confirmed the theoretical assumption that the optimal settings of these adaptive filters are dependent on the ECG electrode positions on the maternal body, and therefore, we were able to achieve far better results than without the use of optimization. These improvements in turn could lead to a more accurate detection of fetal hypoxia. Consequently, our approach could offer the potential to be used in clinical practice to establish recommendations for standard electrode placement and find the optimal adaptive filter settings for extracting high quality fetal ECG signals for further processing. Ultimately, diagnostic-grade fetal ECG signals would ensure the reliable detection of fetal hypoxia.Web of Science175art. no. 115

Extraction and Detection of Fetal Electrocardiograms from Abdominal Recordings

The non-invasive fetal ECG (NIFECG), derived from abdominal surface electrodes, offers novel diagnostic possibilities for prenatal medicine. Despite its straightforward applicability, NIFECG signals are usually corrupted by many interfering sources. Most significantly, by the maternal ECG (MECG), whose amplitude usually exceeds that of the fetal ECG (FECG) by multiple times. The presence of additional noise sources (e.g. muscular/uterine noise, electrode motion, etc.) further affects the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the FECG. These interfering sources, which typically show a strong non-stationary behavior, render the FECG extraction and fetal QRS (FQRS) detection demanding signal processing tasks. In this thesis, several of the challenges regarding NIFECG signal analysis were addressed. In order to improve NIFECG extraction, the dynamic model of a Kalman filter approach was extended, thus, providing a more adequate representation of the mixture of FECG, MECG, and noise. In addition, aiming at the FECG signal quality assessment, novel metrics were proposed and evaluated. Further, these quality metrics were applied in improving FQRS detection and fetal heart rate estimation based on an innovative evolutionary algorithm and Kalman filtering signal fusion, respectively. The elaborated methods were characterized in depth using both simulated and clinical data, produced throughout this thesis. To stress-test extraction algorithms under ideal circumstances, a comprehensive benchmark protocol was created and contributed to an extensively improved NIFECG simulation toolbox. The developed toolbox and a large simulated dataset were released under an open-source license, allowing researchers to compare results in a reproducible manner. Furthermore, to validate the developed approaches under more realistic and challenging situations, a clinical trial was performed in collaboration with the University Hospital of Leipzig. Aside from serving as a test set for the developed algorithms, the clinical trial enabled an exploratory research. This enables a better understanding about the pathophysiological variables and measurement setup configurations that lead to changes in the abdominal signal's SNR. With such broad scope, this dissertation addresses many of the current aspects of NIFECG analysis and provides future suggestions to establish NIFECG in clinical settings.:Abstract Acknowledgment Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations List of Symbols (1)Introduction 1.1)Background and Motivation 1.2)Aim of this Work 1.3)Dissertation Outline 1.4)Collaborators and Conflicts of Interest (2)Clinical Background 2.1)Physiology 2.1.1)Changes in the maternal circulatory system 2.1.2)Intrauterine structures and feto-maternal connection 2.1.3)Fetal growth and presentation 2.1.4)Fetal circulatory system 2.1.5)Fetal autonomic nervous system 2.1.6)Fetal heart activity and underlying factors 2.2)Pathology 2.2.1)Premature rupture of membrane 2.2.2)Intrauterine growth restriction 2.2.3)Fetal anemia 2.3)Interpretation of Fetal Heart Activity 2.3.1)Summary of clinical studies on FHR/FHRV 2.3.2)Summary of studies on heart conduction 2.4)Chapter Summary (3)Technical State of the Art 3.1)Prenatal Diagnostic and Measuring Technique 3.1.1)Fetal heart monitoring 3.1.2)Related metrics 3.2)Non-Invasive Fetal ECG Acquisition 3.2.1)Overview 3.2.2)Commercial equipment 3.2.3)Electrode configurations 3.2.4)Available NIFECG databases 3.2.5)Validity and usability of the non-invasive fetal ECG 3.3)Non-Invasive Fetal ECG Extraction Methods 3.3.1)Overview on the non-invasive fetal ECG extraction methods 3.3.2)Kalman filtering basics 3.3.3)Nonlinear Kalman filtering 3.3.4)Extended Kalman filter for FECG estimation 3.4)Fetal QRS Detection 3.4.1)Merging multichannel fetal QRS detections 3.4.2)Detection performance 3.5)Fetal Heart Rate Estimation 3.5.1)Preprocessing the fetal heart rate 3.5.2)Fetal heart rate statistics 3.6)Fetal ECG Morphological Analysis 3.7)Problem Description 3.8)Chapter Summary (4)Novel Approaches for Fetal ECG Analysis 4.1)Preliminary Considerations 4.2)Fetal ECG Extraction by means of Kalman Filtering 4.2.1)Optimized Gaussian approximation 4.2.2)Time-varying covariance matrices 4.2.3)Extended Kalman filter with unknown inputs 4.2.4)Filter calibration 4.3)Accurate Fetal QRS and Heart Rate Detection 4.3.1)Multichannel evolutionary QRS correction 4.3.2)Multichannel fetal heart rate estimation using Kalman filters 4.4)Chapter Summary (5)Data Material 5.1)Simulated Data 5.1.1)The FECG Synthetic Generator (FECGSYN) 5.1.2)The FECG Synthetic Database (FECGSYNDB) 5.2)Clinical Data 5.2.1)Clinical NIFECG recording 5.2.2)Scope and limitations of this study 5.2.3)Data annotation: signal quality and fetal amplitude 5.2.4)Data annotation: fetal QRS annotation 5.3)Chapter Summary (6)Results for Data Analysis 6.1)Simulated Data 6.1.1)Fetal QRS detection 6.1.2)Morphological analysis 6.2)Own Clinical Data 6.2.1)FQRS correction using the evolutionary algorithm 6.2.2)FHR correction by means of Kalman filtering (7)Discussion and Prospective 7.1)Data Availability 7.1.1)New measurement protocol 7.2)Signal Quality 7.3)Extraction Methods 7.4)FQRS and FHR Correction Algorithms (8)Conclusion References (A)Appendix A - Signal Quality Annotation (B)Appendix B - Fetal QRS Annotation (C)Appendix C - Data Recording GU

Intelligent Adaptive Filtering For Noise Cancellation

Abstract: In current scenario of modern technology, we are facing a necessity of noise removal in signal processing. Various approaches are used for the same. This paper describes an intelligent adaptive filtering for noise cancellation. Here ANFIS method is being used for removal of noise from audio speech signals. An audio signal contaminated with noise is taken and inspected with eight types of membership functions: bell MF, triangle MF, Gaussian MF, two-sided MF, pi-shaped MF, product of two sigmoid MF, difference of two sigmoid MF and trapezoidal MF. Finally using ANFIS, the original audio speech signal is restored. The major advantage of this system is its ease of implementation and faster convergence rate

Advanced robust non-invasive foetal heart detection techniques during active labour using one pair of transabdominal electrodes

The thesis proposes and evaluates three state-of-the-art signal processing techniques to detect fetal heartbeats within each maternal cardiac cycle, during labour contractions, using only a pair of transabdominal electrodes. The first and second techniques are, namely, the structured third- order cumulant-slice-template matching and the bispectral-contours-template matching for fetal QRS identification, respectively. The third technique is based on the modified and appropriately weighted spectral multiple signal classification (MUSIC) with incorporated covariance matrix for uterine contraction noise-like interfering signals also contaminated with noise. Essentially, two modifications to the standard MUSIC have been developed in order to enhance the performance of the spectral estimator in our applied work. The first modification involves the introduction of an optimised weighting function to the segmented ECG covariance matrix, and is chiefly aimed at enhancing the fetal QRS major spectral peak which occurs at around 30 Hz against the mother QRS major spectral peak usually occurring around 17 Hz and all other noise contributions. Additional optional pseudo-bispectral enhancement to sharpen the maternal and fetal spectral peaks, in particular when the mother and fetal R-waves are temporally coincident, have been achieved. The second modification to the spectral MUSIC is the removal of the unjustified assumption that only white Gaussian noise is present and the incorporation of the actual measured labour uterine contraction covariance matrix in reconfigured subspace analysis. This inevitably leads to the generalised eigenvectors - eigenvalues decomposition modern signal processing. This is now coined the modified, interference incorporated pseudo-spectral MUSIC. The above mentioned first and second techniques are higher-order statistics-based (HOS) and hybrid involving both signal processing and NN classifiers. The third technique is second-order statistics-based (SOS). In all techniques, the removal of signal non-linearity with the aid of non-linear Volterra synthesisers plays a crucial part in the fetal detection integrity. Accurately assessed fetal heart classification rates as high as 95% have been achieved during labour, thus helping to provide non-invasive transparency to fetal intrapartum welfare. Performance analysis and evaluation processes involved more than 30 critical cases classified as “fetal under stress in labour” recorded in a London hospital database and used both transbadominal ECG electrodes and fetal scalp electrodes. The latter facilitates detection of the instantaneous fetal heart rate which is then used as the Reference Fetal Heart Rate in the assessment of the classification rate of each of the above mentioned techniques. It will be shown that the fetal heartbeats are completely masked by uterine activity and noise artefacts in all the recorded transabdominal maternal ECG signals. The fetal scalp electrode was, therefore, deemed necessary to provide the highest accurate measure of fetal heart functionality (from the hospital viewpoint), and in the assessment of the three non-invasive techniques presented in this thesis. The techniques may also be used during gestation and as early as 10 weeks

Application of Higher-Order Statistics and Subspace-Based Techniques to the Analysis and Diagnosis of Electrocardiogram Signals

The first and main contribution of this research work is the higher-order statistics (HOS)-based non-linear analysis and subsequent diagnosis of abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, particularly myocardial ischaemia. In the time domain; the second-, third-, and the fourth-order cumulants have been used in the analysis. In the frequency domain; up to the tenth-order polyspectra have been exploited. This HOS-based analysis of normal and ischaemic electrocardiogram signals has led to the identification of certain key discriminant features for the two physiological states of the heart. These features are then fed to different backpropagation-based multiple layer perceptrons for classification. The second contribution is a proposed new methodology to discriminate patients with angina pectoris or with old myocardial infarction (MI) during the first 60 seconds of stress test (or in some cases using rest ECG). It is based on the pseudo-spectral Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) and has the potential of being highly sensitive diagnostic signal processing tool. The third contribution is the development of a novel higher-order statistics, high-resolution estimator for quadratically coupled frequencies based on subspace spectral estimation. Extensive studies of cumulants, bispectra and bicoherence-squared of normal and ischaemic ECG signals collected from MIT and ST-T European databases has enabled us to see key discriminant features in both the third- and fourth-order cumulant domains. In the frequency domain, the polyspectral study has been extended to the lOth-order poly spectra. By calculating one-dimensional polyspectrum slices using an algorithm developed by Zhou and Giannakis (1995) a considerable reduction in the CPU time has been achieved. Furthermore, Zhou’s algorithm has been further extended to estimate the polycoherency slices which are used to characterise non-linearities in normal and ischaemic ECG signals. An important finding in this thesis is the decrease of the order of non-linearity representing the electrocardiogram signals of ischaemic patients. This thesis also includes the results of a pilot study involving eighteen healthy subjects (MIT database) and confirmed that the ECG signal is non-Gaussian, cyclostationary and quasi periodic. Combined spectral and bispectral analysis of the signal revealed that there are unique harmonic characteristics for the P-wave, QRS complex and T-wave and other frequencies due to harmonic interactions. In this work three linear and one non-linear adaptive filtering/predictions techniques have been applied to noisy ECG signals and their respective performances appraised. It is shown that the Kalman filter gives the best mean-square error MSE error but its comparatively long execution time and problems arising from ill-conditioning of the state-error covariance matrix render it of limited use in ECG applications. It is also shown that the LMS-based quadratic and cubic Volterra filters are the most superior for the ECG signal prediction. For ECG classifications; three multi-layer perceptrons employing back-propagation and modified back-propagation algorithms, and using two sets from the higher-order most discriminant features as their inputs, have yielded fairly high classification rates

Survey of FPGA applications in the period 2000 – 2015 (Technical Report)

Romoth J, Porrmann M, Rückert U. Survey of FPGA applications in the period 2000 – 2015 (Technical Report).; 2017.Since their introduction, FPGAs can be seen in more and more different fields of applications. The key advantage is the combination of software-like flexibility with the performance otherwise common to hardware. Nevertheless, every application field introduces special requirements to the used computational architecture. This paper provides an overview of the different topics FPGAs have been used for in the last 15 years of research and why they have been chosen over other processing units like e.g. CPUs