Method and Device for Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring with Maternal Contribution Detection
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSerguei Kabakov, Steven M. Falk
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and device for monitoring a fetal heart rate includes a reference fetal heart rate detected across an ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity. The ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity is scanned in overlapping increments of a first depth. An average fetal heart rate detected for each overlapping increment is tested for a coincidence with the reference fetal heart rate. Overlapping increments with the coincidence and a maximized signal quality rate are identified. An ultrasound depth increment of a second depth is selected representing the selected adjacent increments. Fetal heart rate is determined from an ultrasound signal returned from a scan depth of the second depth.
Claims20
A method of monitoring a fetal heart rate, the method comprising:
- detecting average fetal heart rate (FHR) across an ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity as a reference FHR;
- scanning at least the ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity in overlapping increments of a first depth;
- calculating a signal quality for each overlapping increment;
- identifying adjacent overlapping increments with a maximized signal quality;
- operating an ultrasound probe across an ultrasound depth increment of a second depth representing the adjacent overlapping increments to produce a returned ultrasound signal;
- determining FHR from the returned ultrasound signal.
A device for monitoring fetal heart rate, the device comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer operable to transmit ultrasound pulses over a zone of sensitivity and receive an ultrasound signal of reflected ultrasound pulses according to a timing diagram;
- a fetal heart rate (FHR) detector operable to produce a reference FHR from across the zone of sensitivity, an FHR waveform at individual segments of the zone of sensitivity, and calculate an average FHR from the FHR waveform;
- a heart rate coincidence detector that compares the determined average FHR over an individual segment to a reference FHR calculated as the average FHR over the zone of sensitivity and produces a coincidence signal indicating a closeness between the average FHR and the reference FHR and a stability of the FHR waveform;
- a signal quality detector that determines the quality of an individual segment of the ultrasound signal and produces a quality signal;
- a timing diagram selector that receives the coincidence signal and the quality signal and selects adjacent overlapping increments with maximized quality signals and produces an indication of a maternal artifact alarm if the coincidence signals of the selected adjacent overlapping increments indicate no coincidence and produces an indication of a timing diagram for operation of the ultrasound transducer.
A device for monitoring the heart rate of a fetus, the device comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer operable to transmit an ultrasound signal and receive reflected ultrasounds signals from a plurality of ultrasound depths across an ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity;
- a digital logic that operates the ultrasound transducer according to a timing diagram to scan the ultrasound depth zone of sensitivity in overlapping increments;
- a signal quality detector that calculates a signal quality for each overlapping increment;
- a fetal heart rate (FHR) detector that calculates a FHR waveform from each of the overlapping increments of a first depth size and calculates an average FHR from the FHR waveform;
- and
- a timing diagram selector that identifies adjacent overlapping increments with maximized signal quality and selects a timing diagram for use by the digital logic, wherein the timing diagram is associated with a combined scan depth of the identified adjacent overlapping increments;
- wherein the digital logic operates the ultrasound transducer according to the selected timing diagram and the FHR detector calculates the FHR from the received reflected ultrasound signals produced according to the selected timing diagram.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.