EXTRACTION OF FETAL ECG

R.Parameshwari, S. Shenbagadevi,
Center for medical electronics, Department of ECE, College of Engineering, Guindy,
nna !niversity, Chennai.
"ail# paramesh$%&$%%'(yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT
This project work discusses about the
etractio! o" "eta# ECG si$!a# "ro% the abdo%i!a#
si$!a# a!d a!a#&sis o" the "eta# heart rate 'ariabi#it&
(F)R* to "i!d "eta# we##bei!$+ I! this work FECG
etractio! is do!e o!#& with a si!$#e co%posite %ater!a#
ECG si$!a#+ ,a'e#et based si$!a# processi!$ %ethod o"
si$!a# separatio! is used a!d it $i'es the better resu#t o"
etractio! a!d that cou#d #ead the a!a#&sis i! a!
e""icie!t wa&+
I INTRO-.CTION
)he fetal electrocardiogram *+ECG, signal
provides information about the electrical activity of
the fetal heart. -t contains information on the health
status of the fetus. +ECG can be recorded invasively
using electrodes attached to the fetal scalp, or non.
invasively from the surface electrodes placed on the
maternal abdomen. )he abdominal leads record a
composite signal, consisting of "ECG and the
+ECG. )he +ECG can be determined from this
composite signal /$0, /10.
)his electrical activity of the fetal heart is
having very low magnitude because the recording
electrodes are applied on the maternal abdomen /20.
)he +3R values are ranging from 4% bpm to $'%
bpm, and dominating physiological values represent
a range from 2$% bpm to 24% bpm/'0,/50.
)he +3R have been defined on a basis of
time intervals ) calculated between consecutive heart
beats in fetal electrocardiogram *+ECG, /40, /60.
3owever, most of present day
computerised fetal monitoring systems analyse the
+3R signal which is transmitted from bedside
monitors e7uipped with Doppler ultrasound.based
technology *!S, /80. )his approach affects directly
the accuracy of calculation of the instantaneous +3R
and thus the values of variability indices.
)he aim of this wor9 is to detect +ECG
from the abdominal signal and to calculate the +3R
variability.
II /ET)O-OLOG0
)he fetal ECG is recorded from maternal
abdomen. -t includes the maternal ECG *"ECG, and
the fetal ECG *+ECG,, and the other noises and
artifacts. Suppression of the maternal
electrocardiogram in the abdominal signal is first,
and the foremost step in the detection of +ECG. )he
methodology applied to e:tract +ECG from the
abdominal signal is given in fig.2.
+igure *2, flow diagram of e:traction of
fetal ECG
t first the abdominal signal is low pass
filtered by +-R filter with the order of '% and the cut.
off fre7uency of 2%%3;. )his removes unwanted
noise present in the signal. )hen the signal baseline is
corrected by subtracting the mean value of the
abdominal signal from the abdominal signal. )he
signal sampling rate is 2%%% samples<sec. )he
maternal R wave lies in the range of $%3; to '%3;
and fetal R wave in the range of 253; to 1%3;. )o
detect the locations of the maternal and fetal R
waves, wavelet decomposition is performed on the
signal. 3ence wavelet decomposition is applied up to
level 5 to e:tract pure dominating maternal
electrocardiogram from abdominal signal. )he
Fetal ECG
Proceedings of National Conference on Advanced Computing and CommunicationNCACC11, April.16, 2011
wavelet decomposition structure of the abdominal
signal is shown in fig $.
+ig $ wavelet decomposition structure of the
abdominal signal
-t is observed from the decomposition that
'
th
level appro:imation and '
th
= 5
th
level detail
coefficients are related to >RS fre7uency of maternal
signals. )hey are reconstructed and added before that
remaining appro:imation and detailed coefficients in
the other levels are ;eroed for better detection of
maternal >RS alone. )hen, the information on
maternal >RS comple:es is used to suppress the
maternal ECG in the abdominal signal which ma9es
possible detection of the fetal >RS comple:es. )his
is shown in the fig 1.



+igure *1, a, abdominal signal b, reconstructed
signal has only mother?s >RS.

)he maternal >RS signal is eliminated by
two steps.
Step 2. )he maternal R pea9 from the
reconstructed signal is detected by threshold method.
Step $. +rom the R pea9 the samples are
;eroed in both sides till the baseline is reached. )his
is done by the following e7uation.
@henever the Ri pea9 is coincident with the
signal the samples are ;eroed in both forward
direction and reverse direction by following method.


@here i is the current R pea9. )he detected
pea9s are shown in fig 'a. +ig 'b shows the signal
after maternal R wave is removed.

+igure ' a, signal contains both mother and fetal
ECG. ' b, Signal has only fetal signal and ;eroed
mother?s signals are shown.
Aow the signal contains fetal component
alone. )he fetal signal contains the fre7uency of 25.
1% 3;.
)EART RATE 1ARIABLIT0
+etel heart variability is the inde:es, which
indicates the main active condition of the fetus. )he
safe range of +3R baseline is from 22% bpm to 24%
bpm. +3R baseline higher than 24% bpm for more
than 2% minutes is called tachycardia and lesser than
22% bpm for more than 2% minutes is called
bradycardia. )achycardia and bradycardia would be
the inde: of fetal distress.
+rom the e:tracted +ECG signal, the fetal R
pea9 is detected again using threshold method. )he
2
Adhiparasakthi ngineering College, !elmaruvathur
+3R is calculated from these detected fetal R pea9s.
)his +3R plot is shown in fig 5
+igure 5. 3eart rate variability of fetus
)his variability of the foetal signal is of two
types. Short term variability and long term
variability. Short.term variability is the oscillation of
the +3R around the baseline in amplitude of 5 to 2%
bpm. Bong.term variability is a somewhat slower
oscillation in heart rate and has a fre7uency of three
to 2% cycles per minute and amplitude of 2% to $5
bpm. Boss of beat.to.beat variability is more
significant than loss of long.term variability and may
be ominous.
CONCL.SION
)his proCect e:tracts the foetal ECG from
the single maternal lead ECG and to evaluate the
fetal well being by analy;ing the heart rate variability
of the fetal signal.
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