Automated Detection of Fetal Movements in Doppler Ultrasound Signals versus Maternal Perception

Analysis of movement activity is important since it enables detection of nonreactive fetal heart rate recordings. The aim of the study was to develop an algorithm for automated detection of the fetal movement activity (actogram), based on analysis of the Doppler ultrasound signal, and to evaluate a reliability of the actogram as a source of information about the fetal movements. Bandpass filtering (20-80 Hz) was used to separate the actogram signal describing the fetal movement activity. Simultaneously there were recorded the markers of fetal movements perceived by mother, being the reference information. For the determination of the binary actogram, the authors proposed an algorithm in which the classification threshold was estimated at the beginning of each recording and was adaptively modified during its duration. The algorithm ensured detection of up to 89% of movement episodes corresponding to movements perceived by mother. At the same time almost as high number of episodes not related to the reference information was recognized. Obtained results revealed that the automated analysis of fetal movements is characterized by much higher sensitivity of movement episode detection compared to the maternal perception.