title: Decrement of uterine myometrial burst duration as a correlate to active labor: a Hilbert phase approach.
abstract: We propose a novel approach based on Hilbert phase to identify the burst in the uterine myometrial activity. We apply this approach to 24 serial magnetomyographic signals recorded from four pregnant women using a 151 SQUID array system. The bursts identified with this approach are evaluated for duration and are correlated with the gestational age. In all four subjects, we find a decrease in the duration of burst as the subject approaches active labor. As was shown in animal studies, this result indicates a faster conduction time between the muscle cells which activate a larger number of muscle units in a synchronous manner.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA. rbgovindan@uams.edu
authors.forename: Rathinaswamy B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Govindan
authors.forename: Srinivasan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vairavan
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Furdea
authors.forename: Pam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Preissl
authors.forename: Hari
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eswaran
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007745:Labor Onset / Q000502:physiology*; D009215:Myometrium / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014590:Uterine Contraction / Q000502:physiology*