A preliminary investigation of electrical impedance measurements of the cervix as a method of monitoring and predicting the onset of labour

Author

Avis, N J ; Lindow, S.W. ; Kleinermann, F.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Hull Univ., UK

Volume

2

fYear

1996

fDate

31 Oct-3 Nov 1996

Firstpage

782

Abstract

Preterm labour is a problem of huge dimensions in a first world country, occurring in an unpredictable 6-8% of all pregnancies and accounting for 75% of all perinatal deaths. Knowledge of the physiology of labour and cervical ripening indicate that physiological changes in the cervix may be measurable by electrical impedance measurements. This paper reports the finding of a pilot investigation concerned with obtaining quantitative measurements of the in-vitro electrical impedance of cervical tissue samples taken at caesarean section using a four electrode multifrequency impedance measurement system

Keywords

bioelectric phenomena; biomedical measurement; electric impedance imaging; electric impedance measurement; patient monitoring; Cole equation; caesarean section; cervical ripening; cervix; electrical impedance measurements; electrical impedance tomography; in-vitro electrical impedance; labour onset monitoring; labour onset prediction; multifrequency impedance measurement system; preterm labour; quantitative measurements; Computerized monitoring; Electric resistance; Electric variables measurement; Electrodes; Frequency measurement; Immune system; Impedance measurement; Magnetic resonance imaging; Pediatrics; Pregnancy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1996. Bridging Disciplines for Biomedicine. Proceedings of the 18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Amsterdam

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3811-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.1996.651974

Filename

651974