MEASURING AND DISPLAYING THE PROPAGATION VELOCITY OF UTERINE ACTION POTENTIALS TO DETERMINE THE ONSET OF LABOR

摘要

A method and system to examine and measure the propagation velocity of electrical activity in pregnant patients, labor and non-labor patients at term and preterm, and non-pregnant patients, thereby providing valuable information regarding the state of a patient's uterus. The method can include obtaining uterine EMG signals from a series electrodes, processing the raw uterine EMG signal in a signal processing module and assessing the temporal interval between adjacent electrodes. The propagation velocity can then be estimated by averaging the time required for the uterine EMG signal to traverse a distance between adjacent electrodes.