title: Design of an FECG scalp electrode fetal heart rate monitor.
abstract: The design of a fetal heart rate (FHR) monitor using fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) scalp electrodes is described. It is shown that the design approach followed two stages: generation of FHR pulses at R-R intervals and FHR computation. The former uses a simple hardware approach for QRS detection and R-wave enhancement, while the latter requires a software implementation in order to produce FHR traces on a beat to beat basis. The QRS detection is based on bandpass filtering using switched mode capacitor technique; the R-wave enhancement and amplitude information are achieved by differentiation followed by fullwave rectification and peak detection. An adaptive threshold together with a comparator circuit are used to generate FHR pulses at R-R intervals. Beat to beat variations of FHR traces are produced by hardware and software implementation on a Z80 microprocessor board. Results obtained by the FHR monitor are evaluated and contrasted to other commercial FHR monitors.
authors.affiliation: Departement d'Electronique, Institut des Sciences Exactes de Tlemcen BP.119, Algerie, UK.
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Reguig
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kirk
mesh_terms: D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012535:Scalp