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Feasibility and Analysis of Bipolar Concentric Recording of Electrohysterogram with Flexible Active Electrode

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Abstract

The conduction velocity and propagation patterns of the electrohysterogram (EHG) provide fundamental information on the electrophysiological condition of the uterus. However, the accuracy of these measurements can be impaired by both the poor spatial selectivity and sensitivity to the relative direction of the contraction propagation associated with conventional disc electrodes. Concentric ring electrodes could overcome these limitations. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of picking up surface EHG signals using a new flexible tripolar concentric ring electrode (TCRE), and to compare these signals with conventional bipolar recordings. Simultaneous recording of conventional bipolar signals and bipolar concentric EHG (BC-EHG) were carried out on 22 pregnant women. Signal bursts were characterized and compared. No significant differences were found between the channels in either duration or dominant frequency in the Fast Wave High frequency range. Nonetheless, the high pass filtering effect of the BC-EHG recordings gave lower frequency content between 0.1 and 0.2 Hz. Although the BC-EHG signal amplitude was about 5–7 times smaller than that of bipolar recordings, a similar signal-to-noise ratio was obtained. These results suggest that the flexible TCRE is able to pick up uterine electrical activity and could provide additional information for deducing the uterine electrophysiological condition.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Obstetrics Unit of the Hospital Universitario La Fe de Valencia (Valencia, Spain), where the recording sessions were carried out. The work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología de España (TEC2010-16945), by the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (PAID SP20120490) and Generalitat Valenciana (GV/2014/029) and by General Electric Healthcare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n Ed.7F, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Y. Ye-Lin, J. Alberola-Rubio, G. Prats-boluda & Javier Garcia-Casado

  2. Servicio de Obstetricia, H.U. P. La Fe, Valencia, Spain

    A. Perales & D. Desantes

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  1. Y. Ye-Lin
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  2. J. Alberola-Rubio
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  3. G. Prats-boluda
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  4. A. Perales
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  6. Javier Garcia-Casado
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Correspondence to Javier Garcia-Casado.

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Associate Editor Thurmon E. Lockhart oversaw the review of this article.

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Ye-Lin, Y., Alberola-Rubio, J., Prats-boluda, G. et al. Feasibility and Analysis of Bipolar Concentric Recording of Electrohysterogram with Flexible Active Electrode. Ann Biomed Eng 43, 968–976 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1130-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1130-5

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