Virtual Instrumentation Based Fetal ECG Extraction

AbstractECG, the Electro Cardio Gram is a very important tool for the clinician to decide the cardiac health of a patient1. Fetal ECG is similarly a parameter to decide the child's health throughout the gestation period of the child and during labour. Fetal ECG is contaminated with noise and the mother's ECG. The main objective of this study is to isolate and extract only the fetal ECG from the mixed signals. The present study proposes a method to effectively and efficiently isolate only the fetal ECG. The database used is available from PhysioNet which provides benchmark signals of ECGs acquired from the mother's abdomen. The algorithm used in this study is based on Fast ICA. Graphical representation software such as NI LabVIEW is preferred over Matlab due to the preciseness, cost effectiveness and the ease at which the algorithm can be understood, constructed and implemented. The present study depends on the beats/minute, amplitude and the correlation coefficient parameters to conclude the accuracy of the algorithm