Fetal magnetocardiography: Methods for rapid data reduction
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow (Scotland)
- Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (Scotland)
Fetal magnetocardigraphy (fMCG) provides a unique method for noninvasive observations of the fetal heart. Electrical currents generated by excitable tissues within the fetal heart yield measurable external magnetic fields. Measurements are performed with superconducting quantum interference devices inductively coupled to magnetometer or gradiometer coils, and the resulting signals are converted to digital form in the data acquisition system. The measured fields are usually contaminated by fetal and maternal movements (usually respiration), other physiological fields such as skeletal muscle contraction, the maternal cardiac signal, and environmental electromagnetic fields. Sensitivity to relatively distant sources, both physiological and environmental, is substantially reduced by the use of magnetic gradiometers. Other contaminants may be removed by proper signal conditioning which may be automatically applied using {open_quotes}black box{close_quotes} algorithms that are transparent to the user and highly efficient. These procedures can rapidly reduce the complex signal plus noise waveforms to the desired fMCG with minimal operator interference. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 520963
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 68, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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