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  • The visual analysis of cardiotocographic examinations is a very subjective process. The accurate detection and segmentation of the fetal heart rate (FHR) features and their correlation with the uterine contractions in time allow a better diagnostic and the possibility of anticipation of many problems related to fetal distress. This paper presents a computerized diagnostic aid system based on digital signal processing techniques to detect and segment changes in the FHR and the uterine tone signals automatically. After a pre-processing phase, the FHR baseline detection is calculated. An auxiliary signal called detection line is proposed to support the detection and segmentation processes. Then, the Hilbert transform is used with an adaptive threshold for identifying fiducial points on the fetal and maternal signals. For an antepartum (before labor) database, the positive predictivity value (PPV) is 96.80% for the FHR decelerations, and 96.18% for the FHR accelerations. For an intrapartum (during labor) database, the PPV found was 91.31% for the uterine contractions, 94.01% for the FHR decelerations, and 100% for the FHR accelerations. For the whole set of exams, PPV and SE were both 100% for the identification of FHR DIP II and prolonged decelerations.

  • This paper presents an algorithm that applies metrics derived from automatic QRS detection and segmentation in electrocardiogram signals for analyzing Heart Rate Variability to study the evolution of metrics in the frequency domain of a clinical procedure. The analysis was performed on three sets of elderly people, who are categorized according to frailty phenotype. The first set was comprised of frail elderly, the second pre-frail elderly, and the third robust elderly. Investigators from many disciplines have been encouraged to contribute to the understanding of molecular and physiological changes in multiple systems that may increase the vulnerability of frail elderly. In this work, the frailty phenotype can be characterized by unintentional weight loss, as self-reported, fatigue assessed by self-report, grip strength (measured directly), physical activity level assessed by self-report and gait speed (measured). The results obtained demonstrate the existence of significant differences between Heart Rate Variability metrics for the three groups, especially considering a higher preponderance for sympathetic nervous system for the group of robust patients in response to postural maneuver.

  • The adoption of IoT for smart health applications is a relevant tool for distributed and intelligent automatic diagnostic systems. This work proposes the development of an integrated solution to monitor maternal and fetal signals for high-risk pregnancies based on IoT sensors, feature extraction based on data analytics, and an intelligent diagnostic aid system based on a 1-D convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier. The fetal heart rate and a group of maternal clinical indicators, such as the uterine tonus activity, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation are monitored. Multiple data sources generate a significant amount of data in different formats and rates. An emergency diagnostic subsystem is proposed based on a fog computing layer and the best accuracy was 92.59% for both maternal and fetal emergency. A smart health analytics system is proposed for multiple feature extraction and the calculation of linear and nonlinear measures. Finally, a classification technique is proposed as a prediction system for maternal, fetal, and simultaneous health status classification, considering six possible outputs. Different classifiers are evaluated and a proposed CNN presented the best results, with the F1-score ranging from 0.74 to 0.91. The results are validated based on the diagnosis provided by two specialists. The results show that the proposed system is a viable solution for maternal and fetal ambulatory monitoring based on IoT.

  • Objective: This study highlights the potential of an Electrocardiogram (ECG) as a powerful tool for early diagnosis of COVID-19 in critically ill patients with limited access to CT–Scan rooms. Methods: In this investigation, 3 categories of patient status were considered: Low, Moderate, and Severe. For each patient, 2 different body positions have been used to collect 2 ECG signals. Then, from each collected signal, 10 non-linear features (Energy, Approximate Entropy, Logarithmic Entropy, Shannon Entropy, Hurst Exponent, Lyapunov Exponent, Higuchi Fractal Dimension, Katz Fractal Dimension, Correlation Dimension and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis) were extracted every 1s ECG time-series length to serve as entries for 19 Machine learning classifiers within a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure. Four different classification scenarios were tested: Low vs. Moderate, Low vs. Severe, Moderate vs. Severe and one Multi-class comparison (All vs. All). Results: The classification report results were: (1) Low vs. Moderate - 100% of Accuracy and 100% of F1–Score; (2) Low vs. Severe - Accuracy of 91.67% and an F1–Score of 94.92%; (3) Moderate vs. Severe - Accuracy of 94.12% and an F1–Score of 96.43%; and (4) All vs All - 78.57% of Accuracy and 84.75% of F1–Score. Conclusion: The results indicate that the applied methodology could be considered a good tool for distinguishing COVID-19’s different severity stages using ECG signals. Significance: The findings highlight the potential of ECG as a fast and effective tool for COVID-19 examination. In comparison to previous studies using the same database, this study shows a 7.57% improvement in diagnostic accuracy for the All vs All comparison.

Last update from database: 5/23/24, 6:56 AM (UTC)