F. Gutzeit

Software for Recording and Interpretation of Pregnant Uterine EMG Signals

Abstract:
The tocodynamometry (TOCO) method has been being applied for many years for the monitoring of labors of pregnant women. The quality of the signals vary, depending e.g. on the build of the woman, or her motions during the recording process. In the recent years, an alternative method of labor interpretation has been developed, using uterine EMG (electromyography) signals. Many studies have proved that the significance of the EMG signals is much higher than the conventional TOCO method.

At the International Workshop on Pregnant Uterine Smooth Muscle EMG Activity, a computer program for the interpretation of recorded EMG-Signals is presented. The program scans the signal for significant segments, which are split up into time-frames of equal size. Each time frame is transformed into the frequency domain and the dominating frequency is identified. Basing on these peak frequencies a propability density distribution is computed in order to appoint a characteristic frequency of increased uterine activty.  

The program is demonstrated by means of sample recordings of women in different phases of pregnancy. It shows a good correlation between the TOCO signal and the time depending power density of the EMG signal. Furthermore, the facility of using the propability density distribution for predicting the date of nativity is discussed.

Contact:
Florian Gutzeit Dipl.-Ing.
Institute for Dynamics and Vibrations
Appelstr. 11, 30167 Hannover
e-mail: gutzeit@ids.uni-hannover.de

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