Improved estimation of the fetal heart rate using directional Doppler signal and YIN

Techniques dedicated to the fetal heart rate detection identify the patterns that repeat themselves over the time. The heart rate estimation is algorithmically similar to the estimation of the fundamental frequency (pitch) of voice signals. The new YIN technique introduced for the estimation of the fundamental frequency is applied to fetal heart rate estimation from the directional Doppler signals. We compare the performances in terms of probability of detection and accuracy of the estimation of the technique YIN with those of the cross-correlation, implemented in the Oxford SONICAID (TM) monitors. A better detection probability and accuracy of estimation of fetal heart rate was obtained in case of YIN. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.