Abeywardena Chalani L, Vanheusden Frederique J, Walker Kate F, Arm Richard, Zhang Qimei
Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8PR, UK.
Optics and Photonics Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Dec 24;21(1):48. doi: 10.3390/s21010048.
Daily fetal movement counting based on maternal perception is widely deployed to monitor fetal wellbeing. However, the counting performed by the mother is prone to errors for various reasons. There are limited devices on the market that can provide reliable and automatic counting. This paper presents a prototype of a novel fetal movement monitoring device based on fibre Bragg grating sensors. Deformation of the skin caused by a fetal movement can lead to a change of the strain and stress on the optical fibre sensors, therefore can induce distortions to the breathing pattern of the mother. In the study data was gathered by the sensors through strain measurement and was post-processed using independent component analysis (ICA) and high-pass filtering to show the instances of the fetal movements. Information gathered during user trials with the prototype suggests that the system detects significantly higher numbers of fetus movements than that observed based on the mother's perception. Among the various techniques available for fetal movement monitoring, fibre optic sensing provides many advantages including multiplex capability, flexibility and minimal size, making the concept an attractive solution for reliable monitoring of antenatal fetal movements.
基于母体感知的每日胎动计数被广泛用于监测胎儿健康状况。然而，母亲进行的计数由于各种原因容易出错。市场上能够提供可靠且自动计数的设备有限。本文介绍了一种基于光纤布拉格光栅传感器的新型胎儿运动监测设备的原型。胎儿运动引起的皮肤变形会导致光纤传感器上的应变和应力发生变化，从而会引起母亲呼吸模式的畸变。在该研究中，传感器通过应变测量收集数据，并使用独立成分分析（ICA）和高通滤波进行后处理，以显示胎儿运动的情况。使用该原型进行用户试验期间收集的信息表明，该系统检测到的胎儿运动次数明显多于基于母亲感知所观察到的次数。在可用于胎儿运动监测的各种技术中，光纤传感具有许多优点，包括复用能力、灵活性和最小尺寸，这使得该概念成为可靠监测产前胎儿运动的有吸引力的解决方案。
