TeleFetal Care - A wearable Fetal ECG Monitor

Telefetal Care is a non-invasive and wearable system for home and ambulatory fetal ECG monitoring during the last weeks of pregnancy. The device records eight abdominal ECG leads using a wearable unit, which is characterized by 9 electrodes that are directly sewed in the garment. Data are preprocessed and transmitted to a laptop through Bluetooth connection. A GUI allows data visualization in real time, extraction of fetal ECG, detection of maternal and fetal QRS, computation of parameters to quantify fetal well-being (STV, PRSA, LTI, ApEn). An algorithm for fetal and maternal fetal heart rate extraction and QRS detection was developed. The removal of maternal ECG is based on an averaging and subtracting process. After the removal of the maternal ECG, fetal QRS complexes are detected using a template-matching approach. The algorithm was also adapted to twins pregnancies: the detected fetal QRS complexes are converted into a set of binary series, which are then cleaned using a recursive approach in order to separate QRS complexes belonging to different fetuses. The performances of the algorithm were evaluated on real data acquired using TeleFetal Care and on synthetic recordings, achieving reliable results. The entire system will allow continuative and close screening of fetal wellbeing, preventing risky conditions to be unobserved and alerting clinicians in case of out of range parameters.