US 12,745,938 B2 · Fetal magnetocardiography systems and methods

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods for monitoring of fetal health through determination of fetal heart rate are described. In an example, beat-to-beat decelerations and accelerations are monitored to estimate fetal position and orientation within the womb using magnetometer sensors. The described embodiments enable long-term monitoring that can be remote from a clinical setting, and is sufficiently portable to be operable while the mother engages in substantial motion during daily activity. An example method includes receiving, from a magnetic sensor, a combined heart signal comprising a mixture of a maternal heart signal and the fetal heart signal, estimating, based on the combined heart signal, one or more parameters associated with a location/motion of the magnetic sensor, generating a de-noised combined heart signal by performing a de-noising operation on the combined heart signal, and tracking, based on the de-noised combined heart signal, an estimate of the fetal heart signal.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A system for monitoring a fetal heart signal in a subject, comprising:

at least one magnetic sensor configured to measure a combined heart signal comprising a mixture of a maternal heart signal and the fetal heart signal, wherein the at least one magnetic sensor is configured to operate within a dynamic range from 0.01 pT to 1 mT and with a noise floor within a range from 0.01 pT/√{square root over (Hz)} to 100 pT/√{square root over (Hz)};
and
a processor configured to:
receive, from the at least one magnetic sensor, the combined heart signal,
estimate, based on the combined heart signal, one or more parameters associated with a location or a motion of the at least one magnetic sensor,
generate a de-noised combined heart signal by performing a de-noising operation on the combined heart signal, wherein the de-noising operation comprises an adaptive filtering operation, and wherein the one or more parameters are input to the adaptive filtering operation, and
track, based on the de-noised combined heart signal, an estimate of the fetal heart signal.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Fetal magnetocardiography systems and methods

Life of this patent

Fetal magnetocardiography systems and methods

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21