Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Extraction of heart sound of fetus from heart sound information that comprises plurality of mixtures of plurality of heart sounds of plurality of fetuses

Extraction of heart sound of fetus from heart sound information that comprises plurality of mixtures of plurality of heart sounds of plurality of fetuses description/claims

This application claims the priority of U.S. provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/488,311 (by Roland Priemer, filed Jul. 18, 2003, and entitled “CARDIAC SOUND SEPARATOR AND STETHOSCOPE”).

This application claims the priority of U.S. provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/537,941 (by Roland Priemer, filed Jan. 21, 2004, and entitled “EXTRACTION OF ONE OR MORE DISCRETE HEART SOUNDS FROM HEART SOUND INFORMATION”).

This application contains subject matter that is related to the subject matter of the following applications, which are assigned to the same assignee as this application. The below-listed applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

“EXTRACTION OF ONE OR MORE DISCRETE HEART SOUNDS FROM HEART SOUND INFORMATION,” by Roland Priemer, co-filed herewith.

“IDENTIFICATION OF ONE OR MORE DISTINCT HEART SOUND SOURCES THAT PRODUCE ONE OR MORE DISCRETE HEART SOUNDS,” by Roland Priemer, co-filed herewith.

“HEART SOUND ANALYZER COMPONENT THAT EXTRACTS HEART SOUND OF FETUS FROM HEART SOUND INFORMATION THAT COMPRISES PLURALITY OF MIXTURES OF PLURALITY OF HEART SOUNDS OF PLURALITY OF FETUSES,” by Roland Priemer, co-filed herewith.

This invention relates generally to the medical arts and more particularly to sensing of heart sound information.

A multiple gestation is a pregnancy in which a woman carries more than one fetus. Multiple gestations are concerning because women who are expecting more than one baby are at increased risk of certain pregnancy complications, including preterm delivery. Some of the complications associated with multiple gestation can be minimized if they are detected and diagnosed early.

The embryonic heart starts beating twenty-two days after conception. The heart at this stage may be too small to hear. By the ninth or tenth week after the last menstrual period of the expecting mother, one is more likely to be able to hear the heartbeat of the fetus. By the twelve week, the heartbeat can usually be heard consistently by using a Doppler instrument for amplification.

Although the human ear is unequalled in detecting sounds over a particular frequency range, the spectrum occupied by fetal heart sounds is on the threshold of audibility. This aural processing has always caused problems relating to degree and accuracy of fetal auscultation. Electronically processing the fetal phonocardiogram (“FPCG”) presents a way of avoiding these problems. The greater low frequency sensitivity of the phonocardiographic transducer captures all the acoustic information generated by the fetal heart. Then, additional visual examination of the FPCG provides an effective way of determining temporal measures of fetal cardiac function.

The FPCG allows the measurement of the instantaneous fetal heart rate, beat-to-beat differences and duration of systolic and diastolic phases. These measures are sensitive indicators of cardiac function, reflecting fetal well-being. With the record of various critical cardiac activities readily available, some abnormalities of the fetal heart can be detected in the early stages of the pregnancy. A problem arises with the detection of the abnormalities of the fetal heart in the event of a multiple gestation. When more than one fetus is present in a mother's womb, the acoustic transducer (acoustic or electronic stethoscope) captures multiple FPCGs. As one shortcoming, it is difficult to clearly discern the heart sounds from one fetus in the mother's womb from the heart sounds of another fetus in the mother's womb.

Thus, a need exists for a capability to discern a heart sound of one fetus from the heart sound of another fetus.

The invention in one implementation encompasses an apparatus. The apparatus comprises a heart sound analyzer component that extracts a heart sound of a fetus from heart sound information that comprises a plurality of mixtures of a plurality of heart sounds of a plurality of fetuses.

Another implementation of the invention encompasses an apparatus. The apparatus comprises a plurality of sensor pods of a stethoscope sensor head that are employable to capture a plurality of mixtures of a plurality of heart sounds of a plurality of fetuses that allow extraction of a heart sound of a fetus from the plurality of mixtures of the plurality of heart sounds of the plurality of fetuses.

Yet another implementation of the invention encompasses a method. Heart sound information is obtained that comprises a plurality of mixtures of a plurality of heart sounds of a plurality of fetuses. A heart sound of a fetus extracted from the heart sound information.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

• What Is a Patent?
• What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
• What Is a Copyright?
• Patent Laws