Fetal ECG Extraction

Abstract

Fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring is done for accessing fetal wellbeing during antepartum and intrapartum phases. Although noninvasive fetal electrocardiogram (NIfECG) is a potential data acquisition method for FHR, extraction of fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) from the abdominal ECG (aECG) is one of the major challenging research areas. This chapter proposed and assessed a method suitable for single channel based on principal component analysis (PCA) for extracting fetal ECG. Maternal R peaks and fetal R peaks were detected using Pan Tomkins algorithm (PTA) and improved Pan Tomkins algorithm (IPTA), respectively. Performance of fetal QRS detection is assessed using two open-access databases available online. The method shows satisfactory performance when compared with similar methods and makes it suitable for using a single channel system.