Affiliations: [a] DIMET – Università degli Studi "Mediterranea"
di Reggio Calabria, via Graziella Feo di Vito, I-89122 Reggio Calabria,
Italy
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Fabio La Foresta, Dipartimento di
Informatica, Matematica, Elettronica e Trasporti, Università degli Studi
"Mediterranea" di Reggio Calabria via Graziella Feo di Vito, I-89060, Reggio
Calabria, Italy. Tel.: +39 0965 875 285; Fax: +39 0965 875 220; E-mail:
fabio.laforesta@unirc.it
Abstract: It is well know that the evaluation of the bioelectric field
generated by the human heart allows an accurate monitoring of the cardiac
activity. In fact the human heart can be assimilated to an electric dipole that
changes its amplitude and its orientation during the depolarization and
repolarization processes of the heart muscle cell: this is the theoretic basis
of the modern electrocardiogram (ECG). In fact the ECG is a recording of the
electric potential, generated by the electric activity of the heart, on the
surface of the thorax. Thus, it is used in cardiological diagnosis, like
tachycardia, arrhythmia and other disorders in the heart activation. Recent
works have shown that the ECG technique could be employed to evaluate the
effects of the bioelectric field generated by a fetal heart muscle in order to
obtain the so-called fetal electrocardiogram (fECG). The fECG could be a very
efficient way for in utero fetal heart monitoring and pathology detection
during the pregnancy. In the last years many authors have studied signal
processing techniques in order to obtain the fECG in a non-invasive way, but
no-reflection has been shown about the bioelectric field generated by the fetal
heart. The goal of this paper is to discuss the bioelectric potential
distribution that the fetal heart produces on the mother abdomen during the
pregnancy. The authors also show that the electrodes placement on the mother
abdomen can be optimized to evaluate the fECG using blind source separation
technique.
