Techniques of FECG signal analysis: detection and processing for fetal monitoring

Abstract

Fetal heart rate monitoring is a technique for obtaining important information about the condition of a fetus during pregnancy and labor, by detecting the FECG signal generated by the heart of the fetus. The ultimate reason for the interest in FECG signal analysis is in clinical diagnosis and biomedical applications. The extraction and detection of the FECG signal from composite abdominal signals with powerful and advance methodologies is becoming a very important requirement in fetal monitoring. The purpose of this review paper is to illustrate the various methodologies and algorithms on FECG signal detection and analysis to provide efficient and effective ways of understanding the FECG signal and its nature. A comparative study has been carried out to show the performance of various methods. This paper opens up a passage to biomedical researchers, physicians and end users to advocate an excellent understanding of FECG signal and its analysis procedures for fetal heart rate monitoring system by providing valuable information to help them in developing more dominant, flexible and resourceful applications.

Hardware Prototyping of Neural Network based Fetal Electrocardiogram Extraction

“…The architecture of the neural network is designed mainly by using the adaptive filtering approach that is the combination of ADALINE (adaptive linear network) and TDL (tapped delay line) which was described in detail in our previous work [11] shown in Fig.1. Our previous work was mainly on the signal processing algorithm for FECG extraction only but this article is about the hardware prototyping of that algorithm.…”

“…Fig.1. Adaptive Filter Network [11] The MECG, which is predicted and close to the AECG, passes through the one (N -1, were N = 2) tapped delay line. The tapped delay line was considered mainly due to lower complexity and modeling of FPGA.…”

NN-Based R-peak Detection in QRS Complex of ECG Signal

“…21 ___________________________________________ and has a superimposed 60Hz component. The transition may occur only once or may rapidly occur several times in succession [5]. Motion Artifact: When motion artifact is introduced to the system, the information is skewed.…”

“…The surfaces of the human bodies are constantly inundated with electric-magnetic radiation and it is virtually impossible to avoid exposure to ambient noise on the surface of earth [5].…”

“…There are two main sources for motion artifact, Electrode interface and Electrode cable. Motion artifact can be reduced by proper design of the electronics circuitry and set-up [5].…”