this is the updated one till 7.8.09

1. Earlier monitoring of fetal
heartbeat
Sriram Dash
Reg. 0601289053

2. Outline
• What is fetal heart rate monitoring ? When it
is required?
• Why go for fetal heart rate monitoring ?Why
as early as possible?
• Fetal heart rate monitoring till date .
– Methods.
• Ultrasound.
• ECG belts.
– Their Disadvantages.

3. Contd…
• Proposed heart rate monitoring method.
– Plan.
– Method.
– Explanation with circuit concepts.
• Advantages of the proposed methodology
over currently available techniques.
• References.

4. What is fetal heart rate monitoring
• Fetal heart rate monitoring is recording of
ECG & CTG and monitoring of the heart
as a whole of a fetus .
• Only screening tests are available for
monitoring fetal activity inside placenta,
now-a-days.
• The only accurate test till date is the
antenatal testing.
• But the monitoring of fetus should be done
as early as possible.

5. Why go for fetal heart rate monitoring? Why as
early as possible?

6. Contd…
• The fetal heart beat is an important
parameter in determining hypoxia.
• Bradycardia occurrence can be detected.
• Fetal heart rate is an indirect way of
measurement of pH of the body-Acidosis.
• Any abnormality in the structure of heart
can be found by observing the ECG ,PCG
and CTG.

7. Tools for Fetal Welfare Assessment
• There are many tools available for
assessing fetal welfare.
• All tests have a reasonably low incidence
of finding true fetal compromise.
• There are broadly two methods for fetal
heart rate monitoring:
– Ultrasound
– ECG

8. Ultrasound
• Introduced from the late 1950’s , it is
currently considered a safe, non-invasive
and cost-effective investigation.
– Dating scans
– Nuchal Translucency scans
– Anomaly scans
– Growth scans
– Liquor Assessment

11. ECG Monitoring
• Monitoring the baby's heart using
electrocardiography (ECG) plus
cardiotocography (CTG) during labour
helps mothers and babies when
continuous monitoring is needed.
• This is done by placement of scalp
electrodes on the baby during labour.

12. Disadvantages
• Inaccurate
• Many interferences observed in ECG.
• No clear picture of heart is obtained.

13. Proposed heart rate monitoring
method
• The proposed method for recording the
heart beat accurately and earlier consists
of a wide belt, fitted with several ECG
electrodes.
• The data from the electrodes is fed to a
monitor which analyses the data on an
algorithm, for clear ECG data of the fetus.

14. The Proposed Heart rate monitoring model

15. The Adaptive filter
x(n) = v(n) + m(n)
x(n) : primary input to the filter, observed signal
v(n) : signal of interest
m(n) : primary noise
Adaptive filtering requires a second input r(n), ‘reference input’

16. Contd…
Original signal
Fetal ECG
Corrected signal

17. Conclusion
• Accurate.
• Fetal heart rate can be found earlier.
• Added Advantage-Multidimensional view
of fetal heart can be obtained.

18. References
• Elizabeth Thomson.(2009).Techtalk. New
system allows earlier monitoring of fetal
heart beat.53(27),4.
• NSWHEALTH.(2008).Fetal Physiology.
Cooke H. & Giles W. Retrieved august
2009.