Fetal Electrocardiogram Extraction Based on SWT-MM Method

Abstract

Fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) is of great importance due to the potentially precise information that FECG carries could assist clinicians in making more appropriate and timely decisions during pregnancy and labor. In this paper, a method based on combined Stationary Wavelet Transform and Modulus-Maxima (SWT-MM) method is proposed for extracting the complete morphology of the FECG from maternal abdominal ECG (AECG). It particularly provides a different way of constructing the maternal ECG (MECG) template. The Efficacy of the method was validated using real data in Non-Invasive Fetal Electrocardiogram Database. The morphology of the extracted FECG was clearly seen that the fetal R-peak detection by simple differential-threshold method acquired the average accuracy of 96.8%. The method provides additional important benefits of fast speed and automated control for applying into the fetal monitors. Therefore, the method is potentially a strong tool for FECG extraction, especially in real-time use.