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Influence of gestational age on the effectiveness of spatial and temporal methods for the reconstruction of the fetal magnetocardiogram

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Published/Copyright: January 30, 2009
Biomedical Engineering / Biomedizinische Technik
From the journal Volume 54 Issue 1

Abstract

Fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) has been shown to augment fetal ultrasound evaluation for high-risk conditions, but the clinical utility of fMCG depends on the reliability of the cardiac traces reconstructed. We performed a methodological study to examine the influence of gestational age on the properties of the fetal magnetocardiograms extracted with two methods of signal reconstruction: the template matching technique (TMT), which extracts the maternal components from the signal using only temporal information, and independent component analysis (ICA), which separates the fetal signals by using information on the spatial distribution of the mixed source signals in addition to higher order temporal statistics. Efficiency and accuracy were evaluated in terms of fetal beat detection, signal characteristics, and duration of cardiac time intervals (CTIs) on the averaged traces. ICA outperformed TMT with regard to beat detection and signal-to-noise ratio. The timing of the heartbeats and the duration of the CTIs were essentially the same, whereas some alterations in signal morphology were observed in the ICA traces. We conclude that ICA may be useful in early gestation when the signals are noisy, while TMT may be preferred when accurate beat morphology is required for diagnostic purposes.

Keywords: biosignal processing; fetal magnetocardiography; independent component analysis (ICA); template matching technique (TMT)
Corresponding author: Prof. Silvia Comani, Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics (BIND) Center, ITAB – Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies, University Foundation “G. D'Annunzio”, Chieti University, Via dei Vestini 33, 66013 Chieti, Italy Phone: +39-(0)871-3556901 Fax: +39-(0)871-3556930
Received: 2008-6-25
Accepted: 2008-9-29
Published Online: 2009-01-30
Published in Print: 2009-02-01

©2009 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York

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  4. Postoperative aqueous outflow in the human eye after glaucoma filtration surgery: biofluidmechanical considerations
  5. Intraorale Diagnostik mittels konfokaler Laser-Scanning-Mikroskopie / Intraoral diagnostics using confocal laser scanning microscopy
  6. Influence of gestational age on the effectiveness of spatial and temporal methods for the reconstruction of the fetal magnetocardiogram
  7. Flussuntersuchungen an Strömungsphantomen im Vor- und Nachlauf stenoseförmiger Verengungen mittels geschwindigkeitskodierter MRT und numerischer Simulation der Fluiddynamik / Fluid studies on flow behaviour in narrowing vessels with PC-velocimetry and numerical simulations
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https://doi.org/10.1515/BMT.2009.005
Keywords for this article
biosignal processing; fetal magnetocardiography; independent component analysis (ICA); template matching technique (TMT)

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Research articles
  2. Development of a simple low noise amplifier for recording of sensory mass signals from peripheral nerves / Entwicklung eines einfachen rauscharmen Verstärkers zur Ableitung von sensorischen Summensignalen am peripheren Nerven
  3. Computer- and robot-assisted stereotaxy for high-precision small animal brain exploration / Computer- und robotergestützte Stereotaxie für hochpräzise Exploration des Kleintierhirns
  4. Postoperative aqueous outflow in the human eye after glaucoma filtration surgery: biofluidmechanical considerations
  5. Intraorale Diagnostik mittels konfokaler Laser-Scanning-Mikroskopie / Intraoral diagnostics using confocal laser scanning microscopy
  6. Influence of gestational age on the effectiveness of spatial and temporal methods for the reconstruction of the fetal magnetocardiogram
  7. Flussuntersuchungen an Strömungsphantomen im Vor- und Nachlauf stenoseförmiger Verengungen mittels geschwindigkeitskodierter MRT und numerischer Simulation der Fluiddynamik / Fluid studies on flow behaviour in narrowing vessels with PC-velocimetry and numerical simulations
  8. Short communication
  9. Post-processing technique for improved assessment of hard tissues in the submicrometer domain using local synchrotron radiation-based computed tomography / Nachbearbeitungstechnik für eine verbesserte Erfassung harten Gewebes im Submikrometerbereich mittels lokaler synchrotronstrahlungsbasierter Computertomographie
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