Abstract
Fetal monitoring is important to diagnose complications that can occur during pregnancy. If detected timely, these complications might be resolved before they lead to irreversible damage. Current fetal monitoring mainly relies on cardiotocography, the simultaneous registration of fetal heart rate and uterine activity. Unfortunately, the technology to obtain the cardiotocogram has limitations. In current clinical practice the fetal heart rate is obtained via either an invasive scalp electrode, that poses risks and can only be applied during labor and after rupture of the fetal membranes, or via non-invasive Doppler ultrasound technology that is inaccurate and suffers from loss of signal, in particular in women with high body mass, during motion, or in preterm pregnancies. In this study, transabdominal electrophysiological measurements are exploited to provide fetal heart rate non-invasively and in a more reliable manner than Doppler ultrasound. The performance of the fetal heart rate detection is determined by comparing the fetal heart rate to that obtained with an invasive scalp electrode during intrapartum monitoring. The performance is gauged by comparing it to performances mentioned in literature on Doppler ultrasound and on two commercially-available devices that are also based on transabdominal fetal electrocardiography.
Highlights
One in every five pregnant women experiences complications during her pregnancy [1]
The most important pregnancy complications, in terms of severity and occurrence, are premature birth, birth hypoxia, intrauterine growth restriction, and congenital anomalies. This “big four” of pregnancy complications accounts for the majority of perinatal morbidities and mortalities [2]. Detection of these pregnancy complications is of the utmost importance to prevent irreversible damage, but is hampered by limitations of the technology that is used in daily clinical practice
This technology comprises of cardiotocography and ultrasound imaging. The former constitutes a simultaneous registration of fetal heartrate (FHR) and maternal uterine activity (UA)
Summary
One in every five pregnant women experiences complications during her pregnancy [1]. most of these complications are relatively harmless, some are more severe and will lead to fetal morbidity, or even mortality. The most important pregnancy complications, in terms of severity and occurrence, are premature birth, birth hypoxia, intrauterine growth restriction, and congenital anomalies Together, this “big four” of pregnancy complications accounts for the majority of perinatal morbidities and mortalities [2]. This “big four” of pregnancy complications accounts for the majority of perinatal morbidities and mortalities [2] Detection of these pregnancy complications is of the utmost importance to prevent irreversible damage, but is hampered by limitations of the technology that is used in daily clinical practice. This technology comprises of cardiotocography and ultrasound imaging. The latter is mostly used to screen for anomalies such as growth restriction or congenital heart disease (CHD)
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