A three-stage method for fetal heart rate extraction, from abdominal ECG recordings, is proposed. In the first stage the maternal R-peaks and fiducial points (QRS onset and offset) are detected, using time-frequency analysis, and the maternal QRS complexes are eliminated. The second stage locates the positions of the candidate fetal R-peaks, using complex wavelets and pattern matching theory techniques. In the third stage, the fetal R-peaks that overlap with the maternal QRS complexes are found. The method is validated using a dataset of 4 long duration recordings and the obtained results indicate high detection ability of the method (96% accuracy).
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