Abstract
Uterine contraction (UC) is an important clinical indictor for monitoring uterine activity. The purpose of this study is to develop a portable electrohysterogram (EHG) recording system (called PregCare) for monitoring UCs with EHG signals. The PregCare consisted of sensors, a signal acquisition device, and a computer with application software. Eight-channel EHG signals, the tocodynamometry (TOCO) signal, and maternal perception were recorded simultaneously by the signal acquisition device controlled by the computer via Bluetooth. PregCare was firstly evaluated by a signal simulator. Its relative error (RE) and coefficient of variation (CV) were calculated, and its agreement with the commercial instrument PowerLab was assessed by Bland–Altman plots. After that, PregCare was applied to 20 pregnant women in a hospital to record their EHG signals. These EHG signals were preprocessed and segmented into UCs and non-UCs. Then, the EHG features corresponding to UCs and non-UCs were extracted, respectively, including power spectral density (PSD), root mean square (RMS), peak frequency (PF), median frequency (MDF), and sample entropy (SamEn). One-way ANOVA was employed to assess the difference between UCs and non-UCs. The results show that RE and CV were less than 8% and 0.03%, respectively, which indicated the high accuracy and repeatability of PregCare. The small differences of mean and standard deviation indicated the high agreement between PregCare and PowerLab. Besides, the PSD of UCs was much larger than non-UCs between 0 and 0.7 Hz. RMS of UCs was significantly larger than non-UCs (p < 0.05). PF and SamEn of UCs were significantly smaller than non-UCs (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the developed EHG recording system was able to record EHG signals reliably. It has the advantages of portability, low power consumption, and wireless transmission, which can be used for long-term monitoring of UCs and prediction of the preterm delivery.
Highlights
Uterine contraction (UC) is an important diagnostic tool used during both pregnancy and labor
The recording system will be specially developed for scientific research on UCs with the simultaneous recording of EHG, TOCO signal, and maternal perception. e recording system will be evaluated by a signal simulator and on pregnant women clinically. e EHG signals collected from the pregnant women will be analysed to demonstrate the applicability for monitoring UCs. e system can be applied to clinical practice after optimization
Both relative error (RE) and coefficient of variation (CV) were acceptable, which indicated that PregCare had high accuracy and repeatability
Summary
Uterine contraction (UC) is an important diagnostic tool used during both pregnancy and labor. TOCO measures UCs by means of a strain gauge tied to the abdomen of pregnant women with a belt It detects the changes of the abdominal contour caused by UCs and converts the strain to electrical signals. Electrohysterogram (EHG), which is recorded noninvasively by electrodes on the abdominal surface of pregnant women, is representative of the electrical activity of the uterine muscle. EHG, TOCO, and maternal perception, which represent electrical propagation, mechanical transmission, and nerve conduction, respectively, were not recorded simultaneously by the same device, influencing the time comparison between these signals. E EHG signals collected from the pregnant women will be analysed to demonstrate the applicability for monitoring UCs. e system can be applied to clinical practice after optimization The recording system will be specially developed for scientific research on UCs with the simultaneous recording of EHG, TOCO signal, and maternal perception. e recording system will be evaluated by a signal simulator and on pregnant women clinically. e EHG signals collected from the pregnant women will be analysed to demonstrate the applicability for monitoring UCs. e system can be applied to clinical practice after optimization
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