Comparison of Fetal Phonocardiogram Wavelet Denoising Methods

Abstract

Fetal heart sounds have always been one of the main parameters to focus on in terms of monitoring the well-being of a fetus. In the past, intermittent auscultation was the main technique in midwifery and obstetrics, and Pinard Horn the main equipment of the clinicians. The accuracy of the method was highly dependent on the skills and experiences of the examiner [1]. This method was later replaced by the continuous Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM), also known as Cardiotocography (CTG), using Doppler Effect for monitoring of the fetal heart rate (fHR). By using the computer technology, the performance of the method should be higher than intermittent auscultation. However, many studies claim that this presumption is questionable [2], [3]. Moreover, the drawback of Doppler-based EFM is that it does not allow to monitor fetal heart rate variability. Therefore, some short time changes may occur unnoticed [4].