Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition

Cervical dilation is the most important parameter that is assessed during childbirth to validate that a woman is truly in labour and whether labour is progressing as expected. It is the opening of a mother’s cervix from when it is closed at 0 cm to when it is fully dilated at 10 cm, for t...

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Main Authors: Temitope O. Takpor, Aderemi A. Atayero, Emmanuel Adetiba, Joke A. Badejo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10214297/
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author Temitope O. Takpor
Aderemi A. Atayero
Emmanuel Adetiba
Joke A. Badejo
author_facet Temitope O. Takpor
Aderemi A. Atayero
Emmanuel Adetiba
Joke A. Badejo
author_sort Temitope O. Takpor
collection DOAJ
description Cervical dilation is the most important parameter that is assessed during childbirth to validate that a woman is truly in labour and whether labour is progressing as expected. It is the opening of a mother’s cervix from when it is closed at 0 cm to when it is fully dilated at 10 cm, for the baby to pass through and be delivered. The cervix is a cylinder-shaped tissue that connects the uterus to the vagina. Cervical dilation is majorly assessed through a highly subjective, painful, error-prone, and infection-prone Vaginal Examination method. The method involves a doctor or midwife wearing sterilized gloves and inserting his or her fingers through the vagina to manually assess cervical dilation and mentally visualize it. Hence, in this research, a prototype of a novel low-intensity light imaging probe was developed to acquire images of cervical dilation simulation models for further processing and analysis. The probe was designed with 3D computer-aided design software. Finite element analysis was carried out on the design before it was rapid prototyped. Then, a camera and a light source were inserted into the probe to capture 2,880 cervical dilation images in low-light intensities of 28 Lux and 50 Lux, due to the penetration depth of bright light intensity and heat into tissues. Image preprocessing was carried out on the images by applying a low-light image enhancement technique. This research demonstrated the use of a low-intensity light imaging probe as a possible objective alternative to the subjective insertion of fingers in vaginal examination.
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spelling doaj.art-65770209100b4f6ea1a0691b31b7e6622024-06-25T23:01:30ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-0111861498616410.1109/ACCESS.2023.330392510214297Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image AcquisitionTemitope O. Takpor0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0907-9881Aderemi A. Atayero1Emmanuel Adetiba2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9227-7389Joke A. Badejo3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5646-7385Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, NigeriaIoT-Enabled Smart and Connected Communities (SmartCU) Research Cluster, Covenant University, Ota, NigeriaDepartment of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, NigeriaIoT-Enabled Smart and Connected Communities (SmartCU) Research Cluster, Covenant University, Ota, NigeriaCervical dilation is the most important parameter that is assessed during childbirth to validate that a woman is truly in labour and whether labour is progressing as expected. It is the opening of a mother’s cervix from when it is closed at 0 cm to when it is fully dilated at 10 cm, for the baby to pass through and be delivered. The cervix is a cylinder-shaped tissue that connects the uterus to the vagina. Cervical dilation is majorly assessed through a highly subjective, painful, error-prone, and infection-prone Vaginal Examination method. The method involves a doctor or midwife wearing sterilized gloves and inserting his or her fingers through the vagina to manually assess cervical dilation and mentally visualize it. Hence, in this research, a prototype of a novel low-intensity light imaging probe was developed to acquire images of cervical dilation simulation models for further processing and analysis. The probe was designed with 3D computer-aided design software. Finite element analysis was carried out on the design before it was rapid prototyped. Then, a camera and a light source were inserted into the probe to capture 2,880 cervical dilation images in low-light intensities of 28 Lux and 50 Lux, due to the penetration depth of bright light intensity and heat into tissues. Image preprocessing was carried out on the images by applying a low-light image enhancement technique. This research demonstrated the use of a low-intensity light imaging probe as a possible objective alternative to the subjective insertion of fingers in vaginal examination.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10214297/Cervical dilationcomputer-aided designmedical imagingmedical image processinglow-light image enhancement
spellingShingle Temitope O. Takpor
Aderemi A. Atayero
Emmanuel Adetiba
Joke A. Badejo
Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
IEEE Access
Cervical dilation
computer-aided design
medical imaging
medical image processing
low-light image enhancement
title Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
title_full Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
title_fullStr Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
title_full_unstemmed Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
title_short Development of a Low-Intensity Light Imaging Probe for Childbirth Cervical Dilation Image Acquisition
title_sort development of a low intensity light imaging probe for childbirth cervical dilation image acquisition
topic Cervical dilation
computer-aided design
medical imaging
medical image processing
low-light image enhancement
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10214297/
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