Classification of Doppler Ultrasound signal quality for the application of fetal valve motion identification

Abstract

One dimensional Doppler Ultrasound (DUS) is a commonly applied technique for fetal heart rate monitoring, but it can also be used to identify the timings of fetal cardiac valve motion. These timings are required to estimate the fetal cardiac intervals, which are fundamental and clinically significant markers of fetal development and well-being. Several methods have been proposed in previous studies to automatically identify the valve movement timings using 1-D DUS and fetal Electrocardiography (fECG) as a reference. However DUS is highly susceptible to noise and variable on a beat-to-beat basis. Therefore it is crucial to assess the signal quality to ensure its validity for a reliable estima..