The long term objectives of this research are to implement and evaluate novel adaptive electrocardiographic digital signal processing techniques. These techniques offer potential diagnostic and monitoring value in the field of electrocardiography (ECG) and fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring.
The specific aims of this research are to assess the speed and effectiveness of an adaptive real-time cancellation of the maternal ECG signal and muscle noise, to obtain a continuous record of the fetal ECG signal from maternal abdominal ECG recordings. Such a continuous fetal ECG record enables an accurate calculation of FHR on a beat-to-beat basis. FHR variability accurately obtained by noninvasive means would be of considerable importance for monitoring fetal distress in antepartum FHR testing. A noninvasive measure of FHR variability would enable an augmented antepartum test of fetal well-being from 33 weeks' gestation. The methodology for achieving these goals will consist of: refining and implementing these novel algorithms in a microprocessor system to determine the speed, effectiveness, and accuracy in their adaptive cancellation of the maternal ECG to produce a continuous record of the fetal ECG. This research will lead to technical innovations in the analysis and interpretation of both adult and fetal ECG and FHR variability. It is an important technical innovation that this research will lead to a continuous extraction of the weak fetal ECG signal from recorded maternal abdominal surface potential measurements. The outcome of this research will provide new directions in EEG and EMG analytical techniques. There are clear potential commercial applications for this research in the field of FHR monitoring.
| Frank, T H; Blaumanis, O R; Chen, S H et al. (1992) Noninvasive fetal ECG mode fetal heart rate monitoring by adaptive digital filtering. J Perinat Med 20:93-100 |
