Extraction of Fetal Heart-Rate Signal as the Time Event Series From Evenly Sampled Data Acquired Using Doppler Ultrasound Technique

Analysis of variability of fetal heart rate (FHR) is very important in prediction of the fetal wellbeing. The beat-to-beat variability is described quantitatively by the indices originated from invasive fetal electrocardiography which provides the FHR signal in a form of time event series. Today, monitoring instrumentation is based on Doppler ultrasound technology. We used two bedside fetal monitors with different processing methods for heartbeat detection and FHR signal determination: the autocorrelation and cross-correlation techniques. Both monitors provide the output signal in a form of evenly spaced samples. The goal of this paper is to present a new method for the FHR signal processing, which enables extraction of series of consecutive heartbeat intervals from the sampled signal. The proposed correction algorithms allow recognition and removal of the FHR signal distortions typical for fetal monitors-invalid and duplicated samples. The correction efficiency has been verified based on the FHR variability indices calculated for the sampled signal and the corresponding event series. For both monitors, considerable influence of the signal representation on indices values was noted. Concluding, we recommended implementing these algorithms in fetal surveillance system as a preprocessing stage for the determination of FHR variability indices.