A novel LabVIEW-based multi-channel non-invasive abdominal maternal-fetal electrocardiogram signal generator

PubMed ID: 26799770Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.Web of Science37225623

Influence of Electrode Placement on Signal Quality for Ambulatory Pregnancy Monitoring

Noninvasive fetal health monitoring during pregnancy has become increasingly important in order to prevent complications, such as fetal hypoxia and preterm labor. With recent advances in signal processing technology using abdominal electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings, ambulatory fetal monitoring throughout pregnancy is now an important step closer to becoming feasible. The large number of electrodes required in current noise-robust solutions, however, leads to high power consumption and reduced patient comfort. In this paper, requirements for reliable fetal monitoring using a minimal number of electrodes are determined based on simulations and measurement results. To this end, a dipole-based model is proposed to simulate different electrode positions based on standard recordings. Results show a significant influence of bipolar lead orientation on maternal and fetal ECG measurement quality, as well as a significant influence of interelectrode distance for all signals of interest

母体腹壁誘導胎児心電図装置における胎児心電図分離率低下の原因と背景因子の検討

Tohoku University八重樫伸生課

Novel Bayesian vectorcardiographic loop alignment for improved monitoring of ECG and fetal movement

The continuous analysis of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals is complicated by morphological variability in the ECG due to movement of the heart. By aligning vectorcardiographic loops, movement-induced ECG variations can be partly corrected for. Existing methods for loop alignment can account for loop rotation, scaling, and time delays, but they lack the possibility to include a priori information on any of these transformations, and they are unreliable in case of low-quality signals, such as fetal ECG signals. The inclusion of a priori information might aid in the robustness of loop alignment and is, hence, proposed in this paper. We provide a generic Bayesian framework to derive our loop alignment method. In this framework, existing methods can be readily derived as well, as a simplification of our method. The loop alignment is evaluated by comparing its performance in loop alignment to two existing methods, for both adult and fetal ECG recordings. For the adult ECG recordings, a quantitative performance assessment shows that the developed method outperforms the existing method in terms of robustness. For the fetal ECG recordings, it is demonstrated that the developed method can be used to correct ECG signals for movement-induced morphology changes (enabling diagnostics) and that the method is capable of classifying recorded ECG signals to periods of fetal movement or rest (

Novel Bayesian vectorcardiographic loop alignment for improved monitoring of ECG and fetal movement

The continuous analysis of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals is complicated by morphological variability in the ECG due to movement of the heart. By aligning vectorcardiographic loops, movement-induced ECG variations can be partly corrected for. Existing methods for loop alignment can account for loop rotation, scaling, and time delays, but they lack the possibility to include a priori information on any of these transformations, and they are unreliable in case of low-quality signals, such as fetal ECG signals. The inclusion of a priori information might aid in the robustness of loop alignment and is, hence, proposed in this paper. We provide a generic Bayesian framework to derive our loop alignment method. In this framework, existing methods can be readily derived as well, as a simplification of our method. The loop alignment is evaluated by comparing its performance in loop alignment to two existing methods, for both adult and fetal ECG recordings. For the adult ECG recordings, a quantitative performance assessment shows that the developed method outperforms the existing method in terms of robustness. For the fetal ECG recordings, it is demonstrated that the developed method can be used to correct ECG signals for movement-induced morphology changes (enabling diagnostics) and that the method is capable of classifying recorded ECG signals to periods of fetal movement or rest (

The use of Complex Adaptive Methods of Signal Processing for Refining the Diagnostic Quality of the Abdominal Fetal Electrocardiogram

Import 05/08/2014Tato doktorská disertační práce se zabývá využitím komplexních adaptivních metod zpracování signálů pro zpřesnění diagnostické kvality abdominálního fetálního elektrokardiogramu. Fetální elektrokardiogram fEKG obsahuje cenné informace, které mohou pomoci lékařům při monitorování a diagnostice ohrožených plodů v průběhu těhotenství a během porodu. Doktorská disertační práce se primárně zaměřuje na externí abdominální neinvazivní monitoring plodu, který sebou na rozdíl od klasického interního invazivního monitoringu přináší řadu problémů s kvalitou záznamu. Fetální elektrokardiogram, který je podrobován lékařské diagnostice, je v reálných podmínkách degradován množstvím nežádoucích složek. Především se jedná o superponování silnějšího elektrokardiogramu matky mEKG, technických artefaktů (rušení elektrovodnou sítí) a biologických artefaktů (pohybové artefakty, děložní kontrakce). Tato doktorská disertační práce se zaměřuje na adaptivní metody zpracování fEKG signálů, které mají ambice odstranit pochybnosti v hodnocení fEKG při použití šetrnějšího externího monitoringu.This dissertation deals with the application of complex adaptive methods of signal processing for refining the diagnostic quality of abdominal fetal electrocardiogram. The FECG (fetal electrocardiogram) contains this sort of information that is valuable for doctors in monitoring and diagnosing of endangered fetuses in the course of pregnancy or in the childbirth. The doctoral thesis concentrates primarily on external abdominal non-invasive fetus monitoring technique, which, contrary to the classical internal invasive monitoring, entails a number of problems with record quality. In real conditions, the diagnosed fetal electrocardiogram is downgraded by amount of unwanted components. In particular it is caused by superposition of these factors: stronger maternal electrocardiogram MECG, technical artefacts (transmission grid interference) and biological artefacts (uterine contraction, motion artefacts). This dissertation is aimed at such adaptive methods of FECG signal processing, whose ambition is to clear any doubts in the evaluation of more discreet method of external FECG monitoring.Prezenční450 - Katedra kybernetiky a biomedicínského inženýrstvívyhově