A novel Bayesian deep learning methodology for enhanced foetal cardiac signal mining

Abstract

ABSTRACTCardiac defects are amongst the most common birth defects. Cardiac diagnosis is indispensably imperative in the foetal stage as it might help provide an opportunity to plan and manage the baby during Antepartum and Intrapartum stages, when the baby is born. It is from the Antepartum stage where the foetal electrocardiogram (fECG) signal can actually be detected. At present, monitoring the foetus is completely focused on the heart rate. Currently fECG analysis is used in the clinical domain to analyse heart rate and the allied variations. Analysis using the morphology of the fECG is generally not undertaken for cardiac-anomaly populations. The ultimate reason for this scenario is due to unavailability in technology to yield trustworthy fECG measurements with desired quality required by Physicians. A novel hybrid methodology called BDL (Bayesian Deep Learning) methodology is proposed. The BDL includes a Bayesian filter and a deep learning (DL) Artificial Intelligent neural network for maternal electrocardiogram (mECG) elimination and non-linear artefacts removal to yield high quality non-invasive fECG signal. The outcomes of the research by the proposed BDL system proved valuable and provided high quality fECG signal for efficient foetal diagnosis.