Title: Time-domain analysis of foetal heart sound signals: a novel approach

Authors: A.K. Mittra, N.K. Choudhari

Addresses: Department of Electronics Engineering, Manoharbhai Patel Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gondia (MS), India. ' Smt. Bhagwati Chaturvedi College of Engineering, Nagpur (MS), India

Abstract: Foetal heart sound can be extracted from maternal abdominal surface; the technique is also known as foetal Phonocardiography (fPCG). This work investigates the analysis of foetal heart sound in time domain using a novel signal processing algorithm. An innovative approach is presented for the foetal heart sound acquisition, processing, and time domain representation, which can be used in a portable foetal home monitoring applications. The system has been tested for various real and simulated foetal heart sound signals. The outcome of the process is segmented foetal phonocardiogram along with Foetal Heart Rate (FHR) parameters viz., average FHR, standard deviation of FHR and finally the FHR trace.

Keywords: fPCG; foetal phonocardiography; time-domain analysis; FHR; foetal heart rate; prenatal anomalies; heart sound signals; signal processing; portable home monitoring; portable foetal monitoring.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2010.035511

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2010 Vol.4 No.4, pp.378 - 405

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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