Fetal monitoring device and methods

Abstract

Described herein are fetal and/or maternal monitoring devices, systems and methods using UWB medical radar. These devices and systems may include a UWB sensor providing high-resolution and reliable simultaneous monitoring of multiple indicators of fetal and/or maternal health, such as fetal heart rate, fetal heart rate variability, fetal respiration, fetal gross body movement, maternal contractions, maternal heart rate, maternal respiration, and other derivative parameters during virtually all stages of pregnancy and during delivery. The sensor allows novel collection of physiological data using a single sensor or multiple sensors to develop individual and aggregate normal motion indices for use in determining when departure from normal motion index is indicative of fetal or maternal distress.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An ultra-wideband (UWB) fetal monitoring system capable of concurrent monitoring of indicators of fetal and maternal health, the system comprising:
 a sensor configured for receiving and transmission of UWB signal data, the sensor comprising at least one antenna; and   a signal processor configured to receive signal data from the sensor and to process the information into a matrix of reflected signals indexed by depth and time, and to extract from the matrix a plurality of indicators of fetal or fetal and maternal health.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a receiving antenna and a transmission antenna. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a combined antenna configured for receiving and for transmission. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of sensors each configured for receiving and transmission of UWB data and comprising at least one antenna. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4  configured for monostatic operation, wherein the transmission of the UWB signal from each sensor is received by the same sensor. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4  configured for multistatic operation, wherein the transmission of a UWB signal from one sensor is received by a different sensor. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the signal processor is configured to determine one or more indicators of fetal health selected from the group consisting of: fetal heart rate, fetal heart rate variability, fetal respiration, fetal body movement. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the signal processor is configured to determine one or more indicators of maternal health selected from the group consisting of: maternal heart rate, maternal contraction rate, maternal blood pressure, maternal respiration. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a transmitter connected to the antenna, the transmitter configured to generate a series of low voltage, short-duration broadband pulses for transmission as an emitted signal from the antenna as an ultra-wide band spectrum signal. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a receiver connected to the antenna, the receiver configured to receive reflections of emitted signals received by the antenna and process them into data to be passed on to the signal processor. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the receiver is configured to amplify signals based on their depth so that signals reflected further from the sensor are amplified more than signals reflected closer to the sensor. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the signal processor is configured to determine fetal heart rate and maternal contraction rate. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a local memory for storing the matrix information. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a communication module for communicating to a monitoring system. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the monitoring system comprises a computer system configured to store and transmit data. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the monitoring system comprises a networked server. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor is configured as a single-use, disposable sensor configured to couple and uncouple from the signal processor. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a non-UWB sensor. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the non-UWB sensor comprises an accelerometer. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an output configured to present the one or more extracted indicators of fetal or fetal and maternal health.