Extraction of Digital Cardiotocographic Signals from Digital Cardiotocographic Images: Robustness of eCTG Procedure

A recently developed software application, eCTG, extracts cardiotocographic (CTG) signals from digital CTG images, possibly obtained by scanning paper CTG reports. The aim of this study was to evaluate eCTG robustness across varying image formats, resolution and screw. Using 552 digital CTG signals from the “CTU-UHB Intrapartum Cardiotocography Database” of Physionet, seven sets of digital CTG images were created, differing in format (.TIFF, .PNG and .JPEG), resolution (96 dpi, 300 dpi and 600 dpi) and screw (0.0°, 0.5°, and 1.0°). All created images were submitted to eCTG for CTG signals extraction. Quality of extracted signals was statistically evaluated based 1) on signal morphology, by computation of the correlation coefficient (ρ) and of the mean signal error percent (MSE%), and 2) on signal clinical content, by assessment of 18 standard CTG variables. For all sets of images, ρ was high (ρ ≥ 0.81) and MSE% was small (MSE% ≤ 2%). However, significant changes occurred in median values of four, four and five standard CTG variables in image sets with 96 dpi resolution, 0.5° screw and 1.0° screw, respectively. In conclusion, for an optimal eCTG performance, digital images should be saved in lossless formats, have a resolution of at least 300 dpi and not be affected by screw.