A NOVEL APPROACH & A ROBUST TECHNIQUE FOR FETAL ECG ANALYSIS

Name of Institution: Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore

Author(s): N.Ashwathy, R.Nagarajan, M.Shanmuganand, E.Siva Shanmuganathan

Guided by: Ms.N.Manju.

Contest Category (Student/Research Scholar): Student

Benefits of using Virtual Instrumentation:

Using ELVIS the acquisition of real time data and pre processing of obtained data were
made easy. The in-built LabVIEW tools saved a lot of time and also helped in acquiring accurate
results.

National Instruments products (Hardware and Software) used:

Hardware:
1. ELVIS
2. DAQ (Data Acquisition)
Software:
3. LabVIEW 8.1(Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit, Digital Filter Design Toolkit)

Problem we were trying to solve:

We were trying to remove the contaminants from the Maternal Abdominal signal and to
extract fetal ECG.

Solution to the problem:

Using wavelet transform and Adaptive signal processing to remove the contaminants
and using Independent Component Analysis to extract various features in the Fetal ECG

Introduction to the Application:

Monitoring the condition of fetus at several stages of pregnancy by a successful method
and a relatively inexpensive equipment which could be adopted for monitoring the fetal ECG at
rural health centre and even at home

Brief description of the Application:

The application is arrived at by obtaining the fetal ECG from the mother’s abdomen
using multi-lead cutaneous electrodes. The position of the electrodes and the number of
electrodes used determines the nature of the signal obtained. The obtained ECG contains a
number of contaminants and a strong interference from maternal electrical activity. The
denoising of this signal is done using wavelet transform which removes Power Line
Interference, Base Line Wandering and other wide-band noises. The intervention of maternal
ECG over the FECG can be removed by using Adaptive Signal Processing (ASP).The required
features of the fetal ECG is then extracted using Independent Component Analysis (ICA).
System Set-up of the Application:

The whole experiment was carried out using two methods. They include
1. Extraction of Fetal ECG using analog filters
2. Extraction of Fetal ECG using digital filters
And the results of both the methods were compared.

Structure of Fetus

The fetus is protected by various layers of varying impedences.The general structure of

Fetus is given in the diagram below.

Fig 1. Structure of Fetus

The Fetal ECG has to be obtained across all these layers and interrupting
electrical activities which makes its extraction difficult.Inorder to extract the fetal ECG we will
have to filter out the effects due to all the other layers, abdominal electrical signals, maternal
electrical activities and EMG of the fetus. These are carried out in the following steps.
Extraction of Fetal ECG using Analog Filters
Step 1: Deciding the number of electrodes and the position of electrodes
Three electrodes will be attached to the following sites: the inner surface of right
forearm near the wrist, the inner surfaces of left and right legs near the ankles. Prior to
attaching the electrodes, the subject should swab the skin at each site of electrode contact with
alcohol. Complete the connections between the three electrodes and the circuit (RA to pin 2, LL
to pin 3, and RL to ground). The subject should remain calm and still during the measurement.

Step 2:Extraction of Fetal ECG

Extraction of Fetal ECG from pregnant women follows three stages:

1. Extraction of MECG of pregnant woman.

2. Extraction of signal from the abdomen of a pregnant woman.

3. Extraction of fetal ECG from the results of the above two stages.

Step 2.1:Extraction of MECG of pregnant women:

The purpose of signal analysis is to understand the signal that we are measuring. For example,
using signal analysis we may obtain the following list of the facts about the signal picked up by
the electrodes placed on RA and LL in the ECG experiment. (1) The magnitude of the R-wave is
about 1 – 2 mV. (2) The frequency range of the ECG signal is 0.1 - 250 Hz. (3) Besides the ECG
waveform, the signal picked up by the electrodes also contains several kinds of noise:

-A low-frequency (< 0.03 Hz) noise produced by respiration

-Electrode movement that results in a base line drift of the ECG signal

-EMG noise which has a wide frequency range (1 – 5000 Hz), and

-A 50 Hz noise of power line interference.

The magnitudes of these noises are comparable to that of the ECG waveform.

Based on information gathered by signal analysis, we can design specific procedures for signal
processing.

(1) In order to enlarge the R-wave to about 0.5 – 1 V, the signal needs to be amplified by an
amplifier (or several amplifiers) with a total gain of about 500.

(2) To remove the low-frequency noise, a high-pass filter can be used. The corner frequency of
the filter should be between 0.03 to 0.1 Hz.
 (3) Since the other two kinds of noise have frequency ranges that are overlapping with that of
the ECG waveform, they are more difficulty to remove. The EMG noise can be reduced by
requiring the subject to maintain motionless during the measurement. To reduce the 50 Hz
noise, a special filter called a "notch filter" can be used. Since we have not learned the notch
filter, we will try to use either a high-pass filter with a corner frequency above 50 Hz, or a low-
pass filter with a corner frequency below 50 Hz, to reduce the 50 Hz noise. But which filter to
use? We know that by using either filter, the ECG waveform will also be affected (distorted)
because the ECG waveform contains useful information both in the frequency range above and
below 50 Hz. The question then is: which filter will produce less distortion to the ECG
waveform? Here we again need the help of signal analysis. More detailed signal analysis
indicates that the P-wave and T-wave mainly contain frequency components that are far below
50 Hz. The R-wave also mainly contains frequency components that are below 50 Hz but it also
contains some frequency components that are beyond 50 Hz. Therefore, we decide to use a
low-pass filter with a corner frequency below 50 Hz to reduce the 50 Hz noise. Such a filter will:

(1) Effectively reduce 50 Hz noise,

(2) Have little effects on P-wave and T-wave, and

(3) Produce some distortion on the R-wave. We will use a low-pass filter with different corner
frequencies to filter the recorded signal and observe the effects of the filter on the signal.

The procedures of signal processing used in a particular application are commonly described by
a block diagram. Following is a block diagram for processing the signal from electrodes.

Fig 2. Block diagram for processing the signal from electrodes.

The actual setup and circuit is shown below.

Fig 3. The setup for picking up and processing ECG signal.

 Different colors are used to help you to identify different stages in the overall signal
processing. The circuit around AD620 with blue color corresponds to the block "1st Amplifier" .
The gain of the circuit is determined approximately by the following formula: G = 50 K/ R1. The
circuit with green color (C1 and R2) is the high-pass filter. The circuit around 741 with brown
color is the 2nd Amplifier and the circuit with purple color (R5 and C2) is the low-pass filter.

Procedures

(1) Re-build the circuit

Fig 4. The circuit for the first amplifier and high-pass filter.

Above shows the same circuit that we have used before. The only change is the value of R1:
instead of 200, it is 1 KW now. As a result, the gain of the amplifier is reduced 5 times. After
building the circuit, turn on the power supply and use the oscilloscope to verify that you get a
valid ECG output. Write down the approximate magnitude of the R-wave. Turn off the power
supply now, but do not remove the electrodes.

(2) Add on the second amplifier (non-inverting amplifier)

Based on the value of R4 determined in pre-lab preparation, add on the circuit for the non-
inverting amplifier. We may not be able to find a resistor for R4 that has the exact value you
have calculated.. Just find a resistor of a closed value. After building the circuit, turn on the
power supply and use the oscilloscope to verify that you get a valid ECG output. Write down the
approximate magnitude of the R-wave, and compare with the R-wave magnitude that you
obtained in step (1).

Fig 5. The circuit for the first amplifier, high-pass filter and the second amplifier.

(3) Add on the low-pass filter

Now you should complete the circuit as shown in Fig. 2 by adding R5 (using a resistance box)
and C2 (using a capacitance box). The value of C2 is 1 m F and the initial value of R5 is 1 K. After
building the circuit, turn on the power supply and use the oscilloscope to verify that you get a
valid ECG output. If you are satisfied with the waveform on the screen, measure the
approximate magnitude of the R-wave as well as the magnitude of the T-wave. Fill in these
values in Table 1. Next, you are going change the value of R5 to 2K, 5K, 10K, 20K, and 30K. You
may first survey the effects of R5 by flipping the switches on the resistance box to quickly
change its value from 1 K all the way to 30 K. Then, for each R5 value, observe the effect of the
filter on the 60 Hz noise, and measure the magnitude of R-wave and T-wave.

Fig 6. Maternal ECG without filters

 Fig 7. Maternal ECG with Filters

Step 2.2:Extraction of signal from the abdomen of a pregnant woman:

The electrodes are fixed at the abdomen; the signal obtained is the composite signal. The
composite maternal ECG signal obtained from the abdominal lead, where the interfering
maternal ECG is a stronger signal. However, Fetal ECG has very low power and mixed with
several sources of interference. These include the maternal ECG, maternal muscular and
respiratory activity noise and power line interference.

Fig 7. Circuit to obtain maternal abdominal signal

The above circuit with low pass frequency of 15 Hz is used to extract the composite signal
which is a combination of mother ECG and the Fetal ECG.

.
Step 2.3:Subtractor Stage

Fig 8. Subtractor circuit

Vout = ABDOMEN SIGNAL – MOTHER ECG

In this stage both the mother ECG and Abdomen signal from mother is subtracted and the
output is a Fetal ECG.

Fig 9. Subtracted Waveform

Extraction of Fetal ECG using Digital Filters :

Step 1: Step 1: Deciding the number of electrodes and the position of electrodes
The number of electrodes is increased to ten in this method. They are placed as shown
in the figure below.

Fig 10. Placement of Electrodes

The electrode in the centre acts as the reference electrode and the one on the right thigh acts
as the ground
Step 2: Applying Digital filter Design to remove Baseline wandering
A high pass digital filter is designed using LabVIEW which enables us to remove the
baseline wandering from the ECG signal. The digital filter VI is given below.

Fig 11. High pass filter VI

Fig 12.1.Original ECG obtained from the abdomen

Fig 12.2. Waveform after removal of Baseline wandering

Step 3: Undecimated wavelet transform to remove the wide band noises

The wavelet transform removes the baseline wandering but leaves back the wideband
noises. The noise may be complex stochastic processes within a wideband, so you cannot remove
them by using traditional digital filters. To remove the wideband noises, you can use the Wavelet
Denoise Express VI.The wavelet denoise VI will look like the one as shown.

Fig 13.. Wavelet Denoise VI

The output waveforms of the wavelet denoise stage will look like the following.

Fig 14. ECG after performing Undecimated Wavelet Transform

Step 4: Adaptive noise cancellation to cancel out maternal ECG and to obtain the fetal ECG

Fig 15. Adaptive Noise Cancellation

The power of the Maternal ECG is overwhelmingly greater than the power of the Fetal ECG
signal. In these circumstances, we cannot use traditional filtering techniques. However, if it is possible to
make a separate recording of the noise alone, we can use an adaptive technique to improve the signal.
For this purpose the maternal ECG from the thorax is recorded and adaptively cancelled out from the
abdominal signal which is a mixture of both Maternal and Fetal ECG.The resulting output is the desired
fetal ECG.
The VI for Adaptive Filtering Method is as given below

Fig 16. Adaptive Filtering VI

The output of the Adaptive filter method is as shown below. The maternal and Fetal ECG can be
obtained separately from the abdominal signal as shown.

Fig 17.1. Maternal Abdominal Signal

Fig 17.2. Maternal ECG

Fig 17.3. Fetal ECG

Thus the Fetal ECG has been Obtained Using Digital filter method (VI).
Software implementation in the Application
a) To remove Baseline wandering
-Approach: Digital Filter Approach
-Specification:
Filter type –High pass filter
Sampling Frequency – 200Hz
Passband edge Frequency – 3Hz
Passband Ripple – 1dB
Stopband edge Frequency – 500mHz
Stopband attenuation – 20dB
Design method – Kaiser window
Filter order – 74
-Result: Baseline wandering was removed (fig 12.2)
b)Removal of wideband noises & the noise due to muscular activity
-Approach: Wavelet Transform (since Digital filters cannot be used for removal of
wideband noises and muscular activity.
-Specifications
Type - Undecimated Wavelet Transform
Level - 13
Wavelet – Daubechies6 (db06)
Threshold – soft Threshold
Thresholding rule – minimax.
Rescaling method – Single level
Data type - Waveform
-Result: The wideband noises and the noise due to muscular activity were
removed (fig 14)

Time & money saved with the new application:

With respect to the design aspects the filter designing section in the hardware method
for Extraction of fetal ECG using analog filters consumed a lot of time as the decision of the RLC
components which decides the cut-off frequency consumed quite a lot of time. Whereas when
we compare the same fetal ECG extraction using digital filters with LabVIEW 8.1 and their
respective Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit(ASPT) and Digital Filter Design Toolkit(DFDT)
consumed very less time as well as there was no necessity to spend for the hardware
components. Thus the money and Time were saved to a great extent.
Conclusion:

Thus the extraction of fetal ECG was carried out using analog filtering method
(hardware) and digital filtering method (VI) and the results were compared. The comparison
revealed that the latter method reduces the noise better than hardware implementation. It also
reduces the cost and time of implementation significantly. And hence the digital
implementation of filters using Virtual Instrumentation is advantageous over Hardware
implementation.