Systems and methods for monitoring the fetal heart
First Claim
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1. A method of producing an event signal representative of the recurrence of a fetal heart cycle event comprising the steps of:
- supplying an input signal representative of fetal heart motions and corresponding to at least one fetal heart cycle;
sampling portions of the input signal;
deriving a comparison signal from the sampled portions of the input signal;
providing a correlation signal which has peaks and which represents a correlation function in time between sampled portions of the input signal and the comparison signal;
determining whether a fetal heart cycle is represented by one or two successive peaks of the correlation signal; and
producing said event signal in response to said determination.
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Abstract
For determining fetal heart rate signals representing present and one or more previous fetal heart rate cycles are processed using a correlation technique. Each correlation signal produced by this technique is further processed for substantially eliminating the possibility of detecting the fetal heart rate at twice its real rate.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of producing an event signal representative of the recurrence of a fetal heart cycle event comprising the steps of:
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supplying an input signal representative of fetal heart motions and corresponding to at least one fetal heart cycle; sampling portions of the input signal; deriving a comparison signal from the sampled portions of the input signal; providing a correlation signal which has peaks and which represents a correlation function in time between sampled portions of the input signal and the comparison signal; determining whether a fetal heart cycle is represented by one or two successive peaks of the correlation signal; and producing said event signal in response to said determination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for producing an event signal representative of the recurrence of a fetal heart cycle event comprising:
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supply means for supplying a data signal which represents fetal heart motions and which corresponds to at least one fetal heart cycle; sampling means for sampling portions of the data signal; deriving means for deriving a comparison signal from the sampled portions of the data signal; and data processing means for producing a correlation signal representative of a correlation function in time between the sampled portions of the data signal and the comparison signal;
wherein the data processing means comprises determining means operable for determining whether a fetal heart cycle is represented by one or two successive peaks of the correlation signal; and
event means for producing said event signal in response to said determination. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification