Improved equipment for abdominal fetal electrocardiogram recording: description and clinical evaluation

Abstract

Reliable computer-based equipment for transabdominal or indirect recording of fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) is described. The proposed equipment allows a real-time displaying of the signals (fetal + maternal ECG) without averaging procedures and it does not require the employment of a shielded room; moreover, it is user-friendly to medical personnel. An elementary form of semi-automatic computation of the fetal heart rate (FHR) was also implemented. The equipment simultaneously acquires three signals from seven electrodes, six placed on the maternal abdomen following the three space axes, and one placed on the left leg as a indifferent electrode. The signals are magnified and analogically filtered before undergoing digital finite impulse response (FIR) filter. Then the signals are displayed on the screen of a personal computer (PC). The PC also provides the possibility of storing the acquired signals for further analysis or elaborations. The quality of the recordings allows the analysis of both the rapid and slow electrical phenomena of the fetal heart, and it is not significantly influenced by the occurrence at the same time of uterine contractions. The performance of this method was assessed in 140 pregnant women with gestation periods of 29–42 weeks. In 131 cases (93.6%) the fetal QRS complex was detected and the FHR was obtained. A reliable evaluation of P and QRS waves and of ST interval, in spite of the interference of the maternal complexes, was possible in 102 cases (72.8%).