Systems and methods for monitoring the fetal heart
First Claim
Patent Images
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.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
36 Citations
13 Claims
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A system for producing an event signal representative of the recurrence of a fetal heart cycle event comprising:
-
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)
-
Specification