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Optimal filter design for shielded and unshielded ambient noise reduction in fetal magnetocardiography.

Abstract:
The greatest impediment to extracting high-quality fetal signals from fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) is environmental magnetic noise, which may have peak-to-peak intensity comparable to fetal QRS amplitude. Being an unstructured Gaussian signal with large disturbances at specific frequencies, ambient field noise can be reduced with hardware-based approaches and/or with software algorithms that digitally filter magnetocardiographic recordings. At present, no systematic evaluation of filters' performances on shielded and unshielded fMCG is available. We designed high-pass and low-pass Chebychev II-type filters with zero-phase and stable impulse response; the most commonly used band-pass filters were implemented combining high-pass and low-pass filters. The achieved ambient noise reduction in shielded and unshielded recordings was quantified, and the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) of the retrieved fetal signals was evaluated. The study regarded 66 fMCG datasets at different gestational ages (22-37 weeks). Since the spectral structures of shielded and unshielded magnetic noise were very similar, we concluded that the same filter setting might be applied to both conditions. Band-pass filters (1.0-100 Hz) and (2.0-100 Hz) provided the best combinations of fetal signal detection rates, SNR and SDR; however, the former should be preferred in the case of arrhythmic fetuses, which might present spectral components below 2 Hz.

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Publisher copy:
10.1088/0031-9155/50/23/006

Authors


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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Experimental Psychology
Role:
Author


Journal:
Physics in medicine and biology More from this journal
Volume:
50
Issue:
23
Pages:
5509-5521
Publication date:
2005-12-01
DOI:
EISSN:
1361-6560
ISSN:
0031-9155


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:364134
UUID:
uuid:555f596d-7014-4362-893b-ab110c3482be
Local pid:
pubs:364134
Source identifiers:
364134
Deposit date:
2013-11-16

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