Establishing Criteria for Automated Evaluation of Non-stress Test in Antepartum Cardiotocography

The main principle of present-day perinatology is to ensure successful childbirth. Antepartum biophysical monitoring is usually performed by means of cardiotocography (CTG). In an attempt to minimize subjectivity and poor reproducibility of visual evaluation of CTG traces, computerized systems for automated analysis of cardiotocographic signals are commonly used. They perform several tasks where the most important are real-time acquisition and analysis of cardiotocografic signals from several fetal monitors. Further extension of computerized cardiotocography is a qualitative analysis of antepartum cardiotocograms which is carried out within non-stress test (NST). The NST idea based on fetal heart rate acceleration associated with fetal movement is a good prognostic sign with high predictive value of fetal well-being. This paper presents the procedure of establishing criteria for automated evaluation of non-stress test in computer-aided cardiotocography.