Multifactorial telehealth care pregnancy and birth monitoring

Abstract

The invention provides a system for monitoring a fetus in a pregnant woman, and/or the maternal health risk for pregnancies complicated by such as pre-eclampsia and hypertensive disorders. The system comprises a portable or wearable unit that can be worn by the pregnant woman, preferably so as to allow monitoring during daily life, e.g. in the form of an adhesive patch. The portable unit has a sound sensor, e.g. a microphone or accelerometer, to be positioned on the skin of the abdominal area of the pregnant woman so as to detect a vascular sound from umbilical arteries of the fetus or from the uterine arteries of the pregnant woman. The sound sensor is functionally connected to a processing unit which executes a processing algorithm on the captured vascular sound and extracts a signal parameter accordingly, e.g. the Pulsatility Index. The processing unit then communicates the signal parameter, e.g. using an audio signal, a visual display or by means of a wired or a wireless data signal. Some embodiments include one or more additional sensors, such as a sensor for detecting fetal electrocardiographic signals, and/or a sensor for detecting uterus electromyographic activity. Especially, the sound sensor and such additional sensor(s) may be arranged within one adhesive patch or several adhesive patches.

1 .- 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A portable unit configured to be carried by a pregnant woman, the portable unit comprising:
 an adhesive patch;   a sound sensor arranged in the adhesive patch so as to be positioned in contact with the skin of an abdomen of the pregnant woman, the sound sensor being configured to capture vascular sound from a uterine artery or from an umbilical artery of a fetus present in the pregnant woman's uterus,   wherein the portable unit is configured to transmit a wireless signal comprising a representation of the captured vascular sound.   
     
     
         31 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , wherein the representation of the captured vascular sound comprises the captured vascular sound in an unmodified form. 
     
     
         32 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , the portable unit comprising a filter configured to filter the captured vascular sound, wherein the representation of the captured vascular sound comprises the filtered vascular sound. 
     
     
         33 . The portable unit of  claim 32 , wherein the filter comprises a band-pass filter. 
     
     
         34 . The portable unit of  claim 32 , wherein the filter comprises a low-pass filter. 
     
     
         35 . The portable unit of  claim 32 , wherein the filtered vascular sound comprises a signal envelope of the captured vascular sound. 
     
     
         36 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , further comprising
 a microphone, the microphone being arranged to record sound from an environment around the pregnant woman,   wherein the portable unit is configured to eliminate noise from the captured vascular sound by the recorded sound from the environment, thereby forming noise cancelled vascular sound,   wherein the representation of the captured vascular sound transmitted by the portable unit comprises the noise cancelled vascular sound.   
     
     
         37 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , wherein the portable unit comprises two sound sensors arranged at different positions in the adhesive patch. 
     
     
         38 . The portable unit of  claim 37 , wherein the adhesive patch is configured to position the two sound sensors on opposite sides of the abdomen of the pregnant woman. 
     
     
         39 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , wherein the adhesive patch has a semi-circular shape. 
     
     
         40 . The portable unit of  claim 30 , wherein the sound sensor is configured to capture vascular sound in the frequency range 50-5000 Hz, and wherein the representation of the captured vascular sound comprises the captured vascular sound in the frequency range 50-5000 Hz in an unmodified form, in a filtered form, or in a noise cancelled form. 
     
     
         41 . A method for monitoring a pregnant woman or a fetus in a pregnant woman, the method comprising:
 receiving a wireless signal, the wireless signal comprising a representation of vascular sound from a uterine artery or an umbilical artery of a fetus present in the pregnant woman's uterus; and   processing the wireless signal to extract a state of the maternal blood supply to a placenta and/or blood flow between the placenta and the fetus.   
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein the representation of vascular sound is a signal envelope of the vascular sound. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein the method is implemented in a mobile phone. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein the extracted state of the maternal blood supply to a placenta and/or blood flow between the placenta and the fetus comprises at least one of: a Pulsatility Index, a rise time of arterial sound, and a decay time of arterial sound, venous flow, and timing of a dicrotic notch.