Apparatus and Method for Non-Invasive, Passive Fetal Heart Monitoring
First Claim
1. An automated method of monitoring the fetal electrocardiographic waveform of a fetus in a pregnant mother to extract a high quality fetal signal from an abundance of signal channels, said method comprising:
- a) measuring, in real-time, biopotential waveforms indicative of either one of a maternal heart or a maternal heartbeat and a fetal heartbeat;
b) isolating a single biopotential waveform from among said measured biopotential waveforms for use as a reference fetal waveform;
c) enhancing the isolated reference fetal waveform to remove correlated noise;
d) monitoring the enhanced isolated reference fetal waveform in real-time via at least one fetal monitoring algorithm;
e) monitoring an output quality metric via at least one quality metric monitoring algorithm to determine if it is within an acceptable range; and
f) dynamically adjusting at least one processing parameter of the at least one fetal monitoring algorithm to maintain the output quality metric within said acceptable range.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for monitoring the fetal condition in an objective, quantitative, and non-invasive manner by enabling continuous and highly specific data collection during pre-natal development and the intra-partum period. In an embodiment, monitoring the fetal condition comprises monitoring a fetal heart rate, a fetal heart rate variability, and/or the fetal heart vector orientation of a fetus in a pregnant mother. Automated signal processing techniques are applied to a multiplicity of transducers to select an optimum signal vector to monitor at least one of a fetal heart rate, a fetal heart rate variability, and/or the fetal heart vector orientation of a fetus in a pregnant mother.
37 Citations
22 Claims
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1. An automated method of monitoring the fetal electrocardiographic waveform of a fetus in a pregnant mother to extract a high quality fetal signal from an abundance of signal channels, said method comprising:
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a) measuring, in real-time, biopotential waveforms indicative of either one of a maternal heart or a maternal heartbeat and a fetal heartbeat; b) isolating a single biopotential waveform from among said measured biopotential waveforms for use as a reference fetal waveform; c) enhancing the isolated reference fetal waveform to remove correlated noise; d) monitoring the enhanced isolated reference fetal waveform in real-time via at least one fetal monitoring algorithm; e) monitoring an output quality metric via at least one quality metric monitoring algorithm to determine if it is within an acceptable range; and f) dynamically adjusting at least one processing parameter of the at least one fetal monitoring algorithm to maintain the output quality metric within said acceptable range. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for monitoring the fetal electrocardiographic waveform of a fetus in a pregnant mother to extract a high quality fetal signal from an abundance of abdominal channels, said system comprising:
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a) means for measuring, in real-time, biopotential waveforms indicative of either one of a maternal heart or a maternal heartbeat and a fetal heartbeat; b) means for isolating a single biopotential waveform from among said measured biopotential waveforms for use as a reference fetal waveform; c) means for enhancing the isolated reference fetal waveform to remove correlated noise; e) means for monitoring the enhanced isolated reference fetal waveform in real-time via at least one fetal monitoring algorithm; f) means for monitoring an output quality metric via at least one quality metric monitoring algorithm to determine if it is within an acceptable range; and g) means for dynamically adjusting at least one processing parameter of the at least one fetal monitoring algorithm to maintain the output quality metric within said acceptable range. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification