Electrical impedance monitoring of a tissue or an organ for perfusion or viability has been limited by sensitivity and baseline shifts. An apparatus and method are described which improve sensitivity by making the intervening tissue between pairs of electrodes a determinant component of electrical resonance. Such sensitivity further enhances detection of the pulsatile component of blood flow within a tissue. Baseline shift can be monitored and compensated due to resonance shift. The method is adaptable to sufficiency of perfusion monitoring or viability, imaging by 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional electrical impedance tomography, monitoring of tissue ablation by thermal or chemical methods, and thermoplasty of tissues to alter their form and functionality.

An apparatus for identifying the level of fetal risk during labor, the apparatus comprising: at least one computer operative to receive input signals indicative of at least fetal heart rate (FHR) and maternal uterine activity in a patient, the computer operative (i) to determine baseline FHR variability, FHR accelerations, and FHR decelerations, and (ii) to determine when each of at least (a) FHR, (b) baseline FHR variability, (c) FHR accelerations, (d) FHR decelerations, and (e) maternal uterine activity exhibit at least one non-reassuring characteristic from among a plurality of pre-defined non-reassuring characteristics for at least the parameters (a) through (e). The computer is further operative to (iii) receive user-inputs indicative of the presence in the patient of one or more (f) maternal risk factors, (g) obstetrical risk factors, and (h) fetal risk factors which elevate the level of fetal risk during labor, and (iv) to determine at a given point in time during labor a present level of risk to the fetus which takes into account only: the total number of the parameters (a) through (e) that are each simultaneously, independently exhibit at least one of the non-reassuring characteristics at the given point in time during labor, and the total number of the parameters (f) through (h) which are present. An output depicts in a single graphical user interface one or more of the parameters (a) through (h) over time during labor, and the appearance of which single graphical user interface includes indicia for indicating the determined present level of risk to the fetus at any given point in time during labor and signaling the need for possible intervention in labor.

A patient monitoring system includes: a biomedical sensor including: a transducer configured to produce a signal corresponding to a biological function; a sensor converter configured to convert the signal to a converted signal; and a transmitter configured to produce a communication, based on the converted signal, that is indicative of one or more values of the biological function, and to send the communication wirelessly; and a base station including: a receiver configured to receive the communication wirelessly and to produce a receiver output signal; a base station interface configured to produce a base station output signal indicative of the one or more values of the biological function; and at least one output port to receive the base station output signal and configured to be hard-wire connected to a display that is configured to display information indicative of the biological function.

A trans-abdominal non-invasive fetal blood oxygen saturation detection device comprises a trans-abdominal fetal oximeter and a signal detection assembly connected to the trans-abdominal fetal oximeter. The trans-abdominal oximeter comprises a signal processing controller. The signal detection assembly comprises a light-emitting light source device and a light receiving device, wherein the light-emitting light source device, the light receiving device and a reference signal detection device are all connected to the signal processing controller. The light-emitting light source device irradiates two or more different wavelengths of light into the abdominal cavity of a pregnant woman. The light receiving device comprises a plurality of light receivers respectively placed at a plurality of different positions outside the abdominal cavity of the pregnant woman, and is configured to collect a plurality of optical signals related to the fetal blood oxygen saturation, which are scattered and reflected back from the abdominal cavity of the pregnant woman through the plurality of light receivers, synthesize the optical signals into an optical signal sum related to the fetal blood oxygen saturation and then output it to the signal processing controller, such that the intensity of the received optical signals is improved.

An electrode includes a cutaneous contact for sensing electrocardiogram signals from a pregnant human subject, the electrocardiogram signals containing fetal electrocardiogram signals; a connector in contact with the cutaneous contact for transmission of the electrocardiogram signals from the cutaneous contact to a destination; and a cushion including a cavity, the cushion configured such that the cavity faces the pregnant human subject when in use, the cutaneous contact being coupled to the cushion such that the cutaneous contact is positioned within the cavity, the cushion and the cutaneous contact configured to allow the cutaneous contact to be an electrical interface with skin of the subject when the electrode is in use, the cavity being configured to receive and retain therein an amount of a conductive wetting substance sufficient to provide a skin-electrode impedance of less than 150 k when the electrocardiogram signals are at frequencies of 10 Hz or less.

Systems and methods of maternal and fetal monitoring include acquiring ultrasound physiological data with an ultrasound transducer. A plurality of electrodes acquire biopotential physiological data from the skin of a patient. A controller receives the ultrasound and biopotential physiological data and calculates fetal heart rate (fHR) values, maternal heart rate (mHR) values, and uterine activity (UA) values from the ultrasound and biopotential physiological data.

Provided are a device and method for receiving a fetal heart rate (FHR) signal at each interval during a monitoring period, receiving a uterine pressure (UP) signal at each of the intervals to obtain a plurality of FHR-UP signal pairs, and extracting a feature value for each FHR-UP signal pair, with the feature value being extracted from a predefined alphabet of feature values.

Light reflected from a pregnant woman's abdomen and fetus contained therein that has been received by a detector and converted into a reflected electronic signal may be received by a processor. A portion of the reflected electronic signal that is reflected from the fetus may be isolated and the isolated portion of the reflected electronic signal may be analyzed to determine a fetal hemoglobin oxygen saturation level of the fetus. The isolation may be achieved by synchronizing the reflected electronic signal with a fetal heartbeat signal and multiplying the synchronized reflected electronic signal by the synchronized fetal heartbeat signal.

A method of fetal ultrasound monitoring includes detecting contact of a first ultrasound transducer to a mother's abdomen based on input from a contact sensor in the first ultrasound transducer. A first transducer ID is received from the first ultrasound transducer, and then the first transducer ID is correlated with a first transducer label. A first heart rate is measured based on output of an ultrasound device in the first ultrasound transducer, and a heart rate indicator is displayed accordingly. A position of the first ultrasound transducer is identified in a two-dimensional plane, and the first transducer label is displayed on an abdomen image based on the first position.

Apparatus and methods for monitoring pregnancy or labour are disclosed. The example apparatus includes an electromyography (EMG) sensor having two or more EMG electrodes to monitor fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour and one or more position sensors to monitor the relative positioning of the EMG electrodes during the fetal or maternal activity. The apparatus includes a monitoring device to be placed on a body and having a plurality of integrated sensors, the plurality of sensors including at least: a first sensor configured to detect a first type of signal from the body indicative of a first type of fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour; and a second sensor configured to detect a second type of signal from the body, different from the first type of signal, also indicative of the first type of fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour.