Method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of a fetus
First Claim
1. An apparatus suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said apparatus comprising:
- a) an input for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) a processing unit coupled to said input, said processing unit being operative for processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) an output for releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of a fetus to assess a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition is provided. A signal indicative of a fetal heart is processed to derive a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. The data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicates a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, where each class in the group of classes is associated with a pre-defined fetal condition. Data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition is then released. In one example, a neural network is used to obtain data indicating the likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in the group of classes.
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Citations
74 Claims
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1. An apparatus suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said apparatus comprising:
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a) an input for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) a processing unit coupled to said input, said processing unit being operative for processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) an output for releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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18. A method suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said method comprising:
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a) receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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35. A computer readable storage medium including a program element suitable for execution by a computing apparatus for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said computing apparatus comprising:
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a) a memory unit;
b) a processor operatively connected to said memory unit, said program element when executing on said processor being operative for;
i. receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
ii. processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
iii. releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A trained neural network comprising:
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a) an input unit for receiving feature measures derived from a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate of a fetus; and
b) a set of outputs associated to respective classes in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) a processing core coupled to said input unit and to said set of outputs, said processing core being operative to release at each output data indicative of a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a respective class on the basis of the feature measures received at said input unit. - View Dependent Claims (53)
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54. A computer readable storage medium including a program element suitable for execution by a computing apparatus for implementing a trained neural network, said trained neural network comprising:
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a) an input unit for receiving feature measures derived from a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate of a fetus;
b) a set of outputs associated to respective classes in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) a processing core coupled to said input unit and to said set of outputs, said processing core being operative to release at each output data indicative of a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a respective class on the basis of the feature measures received at said input unit. - View Dependent Claims (55)
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56. A fetal monitoring system comprising:
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a) a sensor for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) an apparatus suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said apparatus comprising;
i. an input coupled to said sensor for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
ii. a processing unit coupled to said input, said processing unit implementing a neural network operative for processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
iii. an output for releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition;
c) an output unit coupled to the output for said apparatus, said output unit being suitable for displaying the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition.
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57. An apparatus suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said apparatus comprising:
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a) means for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) means for processing said signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
c) means for releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition.
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58. An method for training a neural network suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said method comprising:
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a) receiving a plurality of records, each record comprising;
i. a first entry indicative of a fetal heart rate signal;
ii. a second entry indicative of a class selected from a group of classes, each class in said group of classes being indicative of a pre-defined fetal condition;
b) conditioning the neural network on the basis of the first and second entries of each record such as to enable the neural network, upon reception of a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate to derive a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in the group of classes. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. An apparatus suitable for monitoring the condition of a fetus, said apparatus comprising:
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a) an input for receiving a signal indicative of a fetal heart rate;
b) a feature extraction unit coupled to said input, said feature extraction unit being operative for processing the signal indicative of the fetal heart rate to derive feature measures;
c) a neural network module coupled to said feature extraction unit, said neural network being operative to process the feature measures to derive data indicative of a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition, the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicating a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, each class in the group of classes being associated with a pre-defined fetal condition;
d) an output for releasing the data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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Specification