FETAL MOVEMENT MONITOR

• US 20110306893A1
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Analogic Corporation
• Original Assignee: Analogic Corporation
• Inventors: Harrold, Lewis Norman, Diciaccio, Anthony Ralph
• Granted Patent: US 8,666,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/511
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00

Abstract

A monitoring system includes a physiologic monitoring device (102) with an accelerometer (202) that senses fetal movements of a fetus in the womb of a human or animal patient and generates signals indicative thereof, a signal identifier (108) that identifies signals from the generated signals that correspond to a predetermined fetal movement, and a counter (112) that counts the identified signal.

Claims

1. A monitoring system, comprising:

a physiologic monitoring device with an accelerometer that senses fetal movements of a fetus in the womb of a human or animal mother and generates signals indicative thereof;

a signal identifier that identifies signals from the generated signals that correspond to a predetermined fetal movement; and

a counter that counts the identified signal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predetermined fetal movement is a fetal kick.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the accelerometer senses a physiologic movement of the mother that corresponds to the fetal movements.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the accelerometer affixes to the patient via one of a belt, strap, adhesive or heart activity monitoring device.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the accelerometer is positioned over the womb based on an estimate of a fetus location in the womb, which is based on a fetal heart rate.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal identifier identifies signals based on one or more predetermined signal characteristics.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a frequency determiner that determines frequencies of the generated signals, wherein the signal identifier identifies signals having frequencies in a predetermined frequency range, which correspond to a frequency of the fetal movement of interest.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a power spectrum determiner that determines power spectral information about the signals, wherein the signal identifier identifies signals having power spectrums in a predetermined power spectrum range, which correspond to a power spectrum of the fetal movement of interest.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 7 to 8, further comprising a periodicity determiner that determines a periodicity of the generated signals, wherein the signal identifier validates an identified signal based on the determined periodicity.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a signal origin determiner that determines origins of the fetal movements in the patient based on the generated signals, wherein the signal identifier validates an identified signal based on the determined origin.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal identifier identifies signals based on one or more predetermined rules.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a timing apparatus that provides at least one of a time stamp of an identified signal or a time interval in which the counter counts the identified signals.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further including an output device, wherein a count value is presented via the output device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a metric determiner that determines a fetal health metric based on a count value.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a metric determiner that determines a fetal health metric based on a change in a count value over time.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a metric determiner that determines a fetal health metric based on at least one of predetermined criteria or a learned fetal motion pattern.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a notification component that selectively conveys a signal indicative of a health of the fetus.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the signal is indicative of one or more of a number of fetal kicks for a given time interval or a change in a number of fetal kicks in different time intervals.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a pattern determiner that determines a fetal kick pattern; and

a classifier that classifies the fetal kick pattern.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the classifier classifies the kick pattern as indicative of fetal distress.

21. A method, comprising:

sensing a fetal movement of a fetus within the womb of a human or animal patient;

generating a signal indicative of the sensed fetal movement;

determining whether the signal corresponds to a fetal kick; and

counting the signal in response to determining the signal corresponds to a fetal kick.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the fetal movement is sensed with an accelerometer disposed on the patient.

23. The method of claim 22, further including positioning the accelerometer on the patient based on a fetal heart rate signal for the fetus.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the accelerometer is positioned on the patient based on an intensity of the fetal heart rate signal.

25. The method of claim 21, further including:

sensing a fetal heart rate; and

correlating the sensed fetal movement with the sensed fetal heart rate.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining a frequency of the signal; and

identifying the signal as a fetal kick when the determined frequency is within a predetermined frequency range corresponding to a fetal kick.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

determining a power spectrum of the signal; and

identifying the signal as a fetal kick when the determined power spectrum is within a predetermined power spectrum range corresponding to a fetal kick.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

identifying the signal as a fetal kick when both the determined frequency is within the predetermined frequency range and the determined power spectrum is within the predetermined power spectrum range.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

determining a periodicity of the signal; and

validating an identified signal as a fetal kick based on the determined periodicity.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

determining an origin of the signal in the womb;

determining a location of the fetus in the womb; and

validating an identified signal as a fetal kick when the origin corresponds to the determined location.

31. The method of claim 21, further including determining whether the signal corresponds to a fetal kick based on one or more predetermined rules.

32. The method of claim 31, further including:

learning fetal movement patterns; and

determining whether the signal corresponds to a fetal kick based on the learned fetal movement patterns.

33. The method of claim 21, further including determining a count value indicative of a number of identified signals as a function of time for a given time interval.

34. The method of claim 33, further including determining a fetal health metric based on the count value.

36. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the transducer is an accelerometer.

35. A monitoring apparatus, comprising:

a transducer that senses a physiologic movement indicative of fetal movement within the womb of human or animal patient and generates signals indicative thereof;

a signal identifier that identifies signals from the generated signals that correspond to a fetal kick; and

a counter that counts the identified signal.