A portable prototype for diagnosing fetal arrhythmia

Abstract

Abstract Expert knowledge and proper techniques are necessary for diagnosing and treating fetal cardiac disease. Fetal arrhythmia represents an important part of fetal cardiac disease as it conveys abnormalities in the electrophysiological state of the heart. Arrhythmias can be caused by rate or rhythm alterations or by abnormalities in QRS or QT intervals. Fetal echocardiography has been the gold standard for pediatric cardiologists since it assesses multiple aspects of fetal cardiovascular pathology. In parallel, artificial intelligence techniques are being designed to provide additional support to experts in the medical field in terms of detection and accuracy. The present manuscript describes the development of a prototype meant to be an auxiliary for the detection of fetal arrhythmias by analyzing the fetal heart rate (FHR) and its variability. It consists of a portable electrocardiograph and a mobile application that, together, extract the fetal electrocardiogram for its analysis to finally render a first diagnosis. Conducted tests with synthetic signals based on clinical fetal arrhythmia provided a detection rate of 88.88%. Results from tests with pregnant women may indicate that the proposed prototype can be used to render a first diagnosis without entirely depending on expert assistance. This prototype might be helpful to perform routine check-ups in the second or third trimester in pathological pregnancies associated with high risk of onset/progression of fetal arrhythmias. In addition, medical practitioners could use it to corroborate a given diagnosis or in scenarios where there is an insufficiency of human experts to attend a high population of patients.