Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.

The objective of this study was to quantify the number of segments that have contractile activity and determine the propagation speed from uterine electrophysiological signals recorded over the abdomen. The uterine magnetomyographic (MMG) signals were recorded with a 151 channel SARA (SQUID Array fo...

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Main Authors: Diana Escalona-Vargas, Rathinaswamy B Govindan, Adrian Furdea, Pam Murphy, Curtis L Lowery, Hari Eswaran
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4624716?pdf=render
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author Diana Escalona-Vargas
Rathinaswamy B Govindan
Adrian Furdea
Pam Murphy
Curtis L Lowery
Hari Eswaran
author_facet Diana Escalona-Vargas
Rathinaswamy B Govindan
Adrian Furdea
Pam Murphy
Curtis L Lowery
Hari Eswaran
author_sort Diana Escalona-Vargas
collection DOAJ
description The objective of this study was to quantify the number of segments that have contractile activity and determine the propagation speed from uterine electrophysiological signals recorded over the abdomen. The uterine magnetomyographic (MMG) signals were recorded with a 151 channel SARA (SQUID Array for Reproductive Assessment) system from 36 pregnant women between 37 and 40 weeks of gestational age. The MMG signals were scored and segments were classified based on presence of uterine contractile burst activity. The sensor space was then split into four quadrants and in each quadrant signal strength at each sample was calculated using center-of-gravity (COG). To this end, the cross-correlation analysis of the COG was performed to calculate the delay between pairwise combinations of quadrants. The relationship in propagation across the quadrants was quantified and propagation speeds were calculated from the delays. MMG recordings were successfully processed from 25 subjects and the average values of propagation speeds ranged from 1.3-9.5 cm/s, which was within the physiological range. The propagation was observed between both vertical and horizontal quadrants confirming multidirectional propagation. After the multiple pairwise test (99% CI), significant differences in speeds can be observed between certain vertical or horizontal combinations and the crossed pair combinations. The number of segments containing contractile activity in any given quadrant pair with a detectable delay was significantly higher in the lower abdominal pairwise combination as compared to all others. The quadrant-based approach using MMG signals provided us with high spatial-temporal information of the uterine contractile activity and will help us in the future to optimize abdominal electromyographic (EMG) recordings that are practical in a clinical setting.
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spelling doaj.art-c3a43895fbef4755b96bb9aaf9ca6ed62022-12-21T23:52:34ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-011010e014089410.1371/journal.pone.0140894Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.Diana Escalona-VargasRathinaswamy B GovindanAdrian FurdeaPam MurphyCurtis L LoweryHari EswaranThe objective of this study was to quantify the number of segments that have contractile activity and determine the propagation speed from uterine electrophysiological signals recorded over the abdomen. The uterine magnetomyographic (MMG) signals were recorded with a 151 channel SARA (SQUID Array for Reproductive Assessment) system from 36 pregnant women between 37 and 40 weeks of gestational age. The MMG signals were scored and segments were classified based on presence of uterine contractile burst activity. The sensor space was then split into four quadrants and in each quadrant signal strength at each sample was calculated using center-of-gravity (COG). To this end, the cross-correlation analysis of the COG was performed to calculate the delay between pairwise combinations of quadrants. The relationship in propagation across the quadrants was quantified and propagation speeds were calculated from the delays. MMG recordings were successfully processed from 25 subjects and the average values of propagation speeds ranged from 1.3-9.5 cm/s, which was within the physiological range. The propagation was observed between both vertical and horizontal quadrants confirming multidirectional propagation. After the multiple pairwise test (99% CI), significant differences in speeds can be observed between certain vertical or horizontal combinations and the crossed pair combinations. The number of segments containing contractile activity in any given quadrant pair with a detectable delay was significantly higher in the lower abdominal pairwise combination as compared to all others. The quadrant-based approach using MMG signals provided us with high spatial-temporal information of the uterine contractile activity and will help us in the future to optimize abdominal electromyographic (EMG) recordings that are practical in a clinical setting.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4624716?pdf=render
spellingShingle Diana Escalona-Vargas
Rathinaswamy B Govindan
Adrian Furdea
Pam Murphy
Curtis L Lowery
Hari Eswaran
Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
PLoS ONE
title Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
title_full Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
title_fullStr Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
title_full_unstemmed Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
title_short Characterizing the Propagation of Uterine Electrophysiological Signals Recorded with a Multi-Sensor Abdominal Array in Term Pregnancies.
title_sort characterizing the propagation of uterine electrophysiological signals recorded with a multi sensor abdominal array in term pregnancies
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4624716?pdf=render
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