Automatic detection of fetal movement using M-mode ultrasonography

The authors propose an algorithm to detect fetal movements using M-mode ultrasonography. To do this work automatically, the authors find the crosscorrelation between the current data vector of the depth direction of M-mode image and the previous one. In the crosscorrelation estimator, the variation of time lag τ at maximum crosscorrelation value means fetal movements. A woman in the 37th week of pregnancy was monitored and the ultrasonic image of the fetus was recorded over 20-minute period to detect fetal movements using B-mode and M-mode ultrasonography simultaneously. The presented method was compared with maternal perception and B-mode ultrasonography observed by a clinician. The maternal perception method detected only 57% of all fetal movements observed by clinician. The detection capability of the presented method corresponds to the clinician´s detection result