Fetal heart rate monitoring device using condenser microphone sensor: Validation and comparison to standard devices.

BACKGROUND Fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring device is highly demanded to assess the fetus health condition in home environments. Conventional standard devices such as ultrasonography and cardiotocography are expensive, bulky and uncomfortable and consequently not suitable for long-term monitoring. Herein, we report a device that can be used to measure fetal heart rate in clinical and home environments. METHODS The proposed device measures and displays the FHR on a screen liquid crystal display (LCD). The device consists of hardware that comprises condenser microphone sensor, signal conditioning, microcontroller and LCD, and software that involves the algorithm used for processing the conditioned fetal heart signal prior to FHR display. The device's performance is validated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. RESULTS FHR data was recorded from 22 pregnant women during the 17th to 37th week of gestation using the developed device and two standard devices; AngelSounds and Electronic Stethoscope. The results show that F-value (1.5) is less than F𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡, (3.1) and p-value (p> 0.05). Accordingly, there is no significant difference between the mean readings of the developed and existing devices. Hence, the developed device can be used for monitoring FHR in clinical and home environments.

[1]  Boreom Lee,et al.  Sequential Total Variation Denoising for the Extraction of Fetal ECG from Single-Channel Maternal Abdominal ECG , 2016, Sensors.

[2]  Charles E McCulloch,et al.  Relationship between accurate auscultation of a clinically useful third heart sound and level of experience. , 2006, Archives of internal medicine.

[3]  Ignacio Rojas,et al.  Statistical Analysis of the Main Configuration Parameters of the Network Dynamic and Adaptive Radio Protocol (DARP) , 2017, Sensors.

[4]  A. J. Zuckerwar,et al.  Development of a piezopolymer pressure sensor for a portable fetal heart rate monitor , 1993, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[5]  N. Hung,et al.  Review Outcome of Combined Open Reduction and Femoral Shortening Osteotomy for Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip in Children , 2017 .

[6]  F. Boehm,et al.  Intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring. , 1999, Obstetrics and gynecology clinics of North America.

[7]  T. Kiserud,et al.  The fetal circulation , 2004, Prenatal diagnosis.

[8]  Om Prakash Singh,et al.  Real-time human respiration carbon dioxide measurement device for cardiorespiratory assessment , 2018, Journal of breath research.

[9]  K. Hammermeister,et al.  Implications of third heart sounds in patients with valvular heart disease. The Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study on Valvular Heart Disease. , 1992, The New England journal of medicine.

[10]  M. Godinez,et al.  On-line fetal heart rate monitor by phonocardiography , 2003, Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37439).

[11]  N. K. Choudhari,et al.  Development of a low cost fetal heart sound monitoring system for home care application , 2009 .

[12]  R. Barrows.  Quantitative Comparison of Three Standardization Methods Using a One-Way ANOVA for Multiple Mean Comparisons. , 2007 .