Improving the Periodicity Measurement in Fetal Heart Activity Signal

In this paper we discussed the influence of preliminary processing of the ultrasound Doppler signal on accuracy of the fetal heart rate estimation as well as on reliability of the FHR instantaneous variability assessment. We attempted to develop an optimal processing channel of US Doppler signal in order to measure the periodicity of fetal heart activity with accuracy as close as possible to that ensured by FECG. The FHR values determined from the US signal were compared to the reference data obtained from direct FECG. In a final evaluation we used the parameters describing the FHR variability as the clinically important signal features being the most sensitive to any periodicity inaccuracy. The results proved that an application of proposed algorithms improves the accuracy of interval measurements and FHR instantaneous variability assessment in relation to the new-generation fetal monitors.