9) Fetal Heart Monitor Uses Mp3 Technology to Catch Potential Abnormalities
According a recent study by the International Journal of Engineering Systems Modeling and Simulation, a new kind of fetal heart monitor is available for monitoring the heart-rate of unborn infants in high risk pregnancies.
Using some of the same technology used to listen to music, this Mp3 based device uses a dual-microphone system to monitor the fetal heart rate while the mother sleeps, and sends alerts to both the woman and her doctor.
When complicated pregnancies result in preterm labor, miscarriage or the death of a fetus, the problems leading up to this are usually evident for a number of days. With regular ultrasound monitoring, physicians can spot most problems, but it isn’t advisable to undergo ultrasound monitoring too frequently. Plus, ultrasound machines cannot detect the fetal heart rate.
Researchers have found that the fetal heart rate can drop suddenly and last for up to a minute, long before an underlying problem is found in other symptoms. In many cases, this occurs just before the pregnant woman falls asleep. The reason it happens then is because this is when the woman’s heart rate drops, which results in lower blood pressure to the fetus.
Mp3 fetal heart monitors can provide urgent medical assistance when this becomes a danger to the health of the fetus, and is expected to be highly effective in preventing prenatal problems, including stillbirth.
The device itself is based on two acoustic sensors that feed the fetal heart rate data into a wave analyzer, which is connected to a bedside computer with an internet connection. A “wav” file is created that can then be analyzed for medical abnormalities and compressed into an mp3 format for a quick upload to the physician’s computer. Any medical anomalies will trigger a warning to seek medical assistance.
This new monitoring technique is relatively inexpensive and safe, since no energy penetrates the womb at any time during the monitoring process with fetal heart monitors.