TrustUs: Fetal electrocardiogram multi-channel analysis

• Main Authors: Adriano, Carlo D.C., Bihis, Raphael Emmanuel B., Bringas, Jaimie Lou A., Hong, Charisse B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2016
• Subjects: Fetal heart rate monitoring; Fetal monitoring
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7645
• Institution: De La Salle University

Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) is a widely used practice in ensuing the health and safety of the fetus during pregnancy, especially during labor. Existing EFM techniques such as cardiotocography and doppler monitoring allow doctors to detect, analyze and diagnose the heartbeat of the fetus to determine its condition. Using information provided by EFM, a doctor is able to identify if the fetus is in distress and recommend when an emergency ceasarian section is required. These techniques however can only provide fetal heart rate (FHR). Other methods such as fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) overcome this limitation by providing more information not limited to FHR. As stable FECG can be obtained upon reaching 8 months of gestational age, it may be possible to use this in obtaining information that indicate the fetal condition. This study proposes a fetal ECG extraction method from an AECG sample that reduces noise by a series of digital filters. The signal undergoes wavelet decomposition to eliminate baseline wander by utilizing Coiflet 5. Powerline noise removal is accomplished by using comb notch filter with the order of 20. Based on the results, a comb notch filter yields better results that a regular notch fitler. Other noise components are attenuated by using a Chebyshev Type II low pass filter that attenuates frequencies above 80 Hz. FECG is extracted by subtracting a synthetic MECG from the AECG by using a template matching algorithm. The resulting FECG is analyzed by the design system for feature extraction and is usable for further studies.