A method for assessment and/or monitoring a person's cardiovascular state comprises: using a sound and vibration transducer to acquire a vascular sound signal in order to detect a vascular sound from a cervical, thoracic, abdominal, pelvic, or lower limb region of the person; filtering the vascular sound signal to isolate the vascular sound, said filtering using a filter which attenuates frequencies below a lower cut-off frequency in a range of 100-300 Hz; and analyzing the filtered sound signal in order to determine whether an indication of a dicrotic notch in the vascular sound exceeds a set threshold.

A method implemented through an electronic system for processing a sequential data to identify possible peak points is disclosed. The method defines a decayed threshold function and partition the sequential data into a plurality of segments by grouping each data point with surrounding data points into one of the segments. After that, a plurality of weighted segments are derived through weighting the surrounding data points by the decayed threshold function in each of the segments, and the peak points are identified through corresponding weighted segment.

There are provided a maternal and fetal monitoring device and a display device for monitoring device including fetal heart rate acquisition means configured to acquire a fetal heart rate, labor pain intensity acquisition means configured to acquire a maternal labor pain intensity, fetal bioelectric signal acquisition means configured to acquire a fetal bioelectric signal, and display means capable of simultaneously displaying a cardiotocogram that displays the fetal heart rate and the labor pain intensity side by side on the same time axis over time as a graph and a fetal bioelectric signal diagram displaying the fetal bioelectric signal, and optimizing and displaying, together with the cardiotocogram, the fetal bioelectric signal diagram and the like closely related to these pieces of information.

In the present invention, a system and associated method is provided for monitoring fetal vital parameters. The system includes a base unit, a monitoring hub including a digital signal processor/controller and operably connected to the base unit by a single channel digital signal protocol cable, e.g., a USB cable, and a number of fetal monitoring sensors operably connected to the monitoring hub. The controller processes the signals from the sensors into a single USB protocol which can be sent along a single cable to the base unit. The USB cable allows power to be supplied to the hub in order to charge a battery used to operate the hub and the sensors connected to the hub when disconnected from the base unit to allow the patient using the hub to move freely about the base unit, with all sensor signals from the hub being wirelessly transmitted to the base unit.

Wearable fetal health monitoring device for determining a heath condition of a fetus based on biosignals of an expecting mother and the fetus is provided. The device includes a MEMS accelerometer that converts an acoustic wave sensed in an abdominal region into an abdominal acoustic signal. The device also includes a pulse oximeter generates a maternal photoplethysmogram (mPPG) value from a pulse sensed in the abdominal region. The device further includes a microcontroller configured to: generate a maternal phonocardiogram (mPCG) value from the abdominal acoustic signal; calculate a first maternal heart rate (mHR) value from the mPCG value; calculate a second mHR value from the mPPG value; compare the first mHR value with the second mHR value to identify a noise correction value; and apply the identified noise correction value to the mPCG value to extract a fetal phonocardiogram (fPCG) value.

A processing unit and method for processing fetal Doppler ultrasound data to extract a set of signals representative of different distinct heart rate signal sources, i.e. maternal heart rate and fetal heart rate. Doppler data is received (32) from a plurality of different transducer sources, corresponding to different (but potentially overlapping) tissue regions within the maternal abdomen. From the multiple sources of Doppler ultrasound data is compiled (34) a single set of input signal channels, each corresponding to a different tissue region within the maternal abdomen. These are then processed successively by a PCA algorithm (36) followed by an ICA algorithm (38), which work to unmix the multiple heart rate sources present in each of the input channels, and derive a set of output signals from the ICA which can be taken as representative of separate heart rate sources.

An electrode interface system for providing a connection between at least one electrode and a maternal-fetal monitor, wherein the interface system converts electrical muscle activity captured by the electrode(s) into uterine activity data signals for use by the maternal-fetal monitor. The electrode interface system of the invention preferably includes a conversion means for converting the signals from the electrode(s) into signals similar to those produced by a tocodynometer.

Computer-assisted methods for assisting in anomaly identification relating to a dysmorphology analysis comprise retrieving and/or generating a sequence of progressively changing images that depict morphing of at least a subject's first physical feature, between at least a first state representing an identification of a first anomaly relating to a dysmorphology and a second state representing lack of the identification of the first anomaly. The number of images in the sequence is selected to provide a substantially continuous transition between the first and second states. The retrieved and/or generated images are displayed on a display of a processing device, and a user interface on the processing device is provided for a user to make an image selection, which can then be used to determine identification or lack of identification of the anomaly.

The present invention relates to a pregnancy monitoring system, the system comprising a fetal monitoring transducer (20) arranged to detect fetal medical condition information; and a control device (48) comprising a motion assessment unit (50) and a signal output unit (52); wherein the fetal monitoring transducer (20) is arranged to detect fetal movement indicative information, wherein the motion assessment unit (50) is arranged to process fetal movement grading information, in addition to the fetal movement indicative information, wherein the signal output unit (52) is arranged to simultaneously output a fetal condition signal, particularly a fetal heart rate signal, and an augmented fetal movement signal based on the fetal movement indicative information and the fetal movement grading information, wherein a characteristic property of the original fetal movement information is still present in the augmented fetal movement signal. The disclosure further relates to a corresponding pregnancy monitoring method.

Apparatus and methods for monitoring pregnancy or labour are disclosed. In one embodiment the 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 two or more EMG electrodes during the fetal or maternal activity. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a monitoring device to be placed on a body and having a plurality of sensors integrated into the monitoring device, 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.