Fetal QRS extraction from single-channel abdominal ECG using adaptive improved permutation entropy

Nastaran Mansourian; Sadaf Sarafan; Farah Torkamani-Azar; Tadesse Ghirmai; Hung Cao

doi:10.1007/s13246-024-01386-0

Fetal QRS extraction from single-channel abdominal ECG using adaptive improved permutation entropy

Phys Eng Sci Med. 2024 Feb 8. doi: 10.1007/s13246-024-01386-0. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nastaran Mansourian¹, Sadaf Sarafan², Farah Torkamani-Azar³, Tadesse Ghirmai⁴, Hung Cao^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
³ Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran. f-torkamani@sbu.ac.ir.
⁴ Division of Engineering and Mathematics, University of Washington, Bothell Campus, Bothell, WA, 98011, USA.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.

PMID: 38329662
DOI: 10.1007/s13246-024-01386-0

Abstract

Fetal electrocardiogram (fECG) monitoring is crucial for assessing fetal condition during pregnancy. However, current fECG extraction algorithms are not suitable for wearable devices due to their high computational cost and multi-channel signal requirement. The paper introduces a novel and efficient algorithm called Adaptive Improved Permutation Entropy (AIPE), which can extract fetal QRS from a single-channel abdominal ECG (aECG). The proposed algorithm is robust and computationally efficient, making it a reliable and effective solution for wearable devices. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we utilized our clinical data obtained from a pilot study with 10 subjects, each recording lasting 20 min. Additionally, data from the PhysioNet 2013 Challenge bank with labeled QRS complex annotations were simulated. The proposed methodology demonstrates an average positive predictive value ([Formula: see text]) of 91.0227%, sensitivity (Se) of 90.4726%, and F1 score of 90.6525% from the PhysioNet 2013 Challenge bank, outperforming other methods. The results suggest that AIPE could enable continuous home-based monitoring of unborn babies, even when mothers are not engaging in any hard physical activities.

Keywords: Adaptive improved permutation entropy (AIPE); Fetal QRS extraction; Fetal monitoring; Signal processing.