2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

Adaptive Signal Processing Techniques for Extracting

Abdominal Fetal Electrocardiogram
Radek Martinek (IEEE Member), Radana Kahankova, Hana Skutova, Petr Koudelka (IEEE Member),
Jan Zidek, and Jiri Koziorek
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
17. listopadu 15/2172, Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—The extraction of the Fetal Electrocardiogram The strong Maternal Electrocardiogram (mECG) along with
(fECG) from the composite Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal the weak fECG is overlapping in time and in frequency as well.
obtained from the abdominal lead is discussed. The main point of Reducing the maternal component from a composite abdominal
this paper is to introduce some of the most used Least Mean signal is therefore a very challenging task. Many different
Squares (LMS) based Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Adaptive approaches have been proposed for detection and extraction of
Filters and to determine which of them are the most effective the fECG with various degrees of success. These techniques
under varying circumstances. Experimental results suggest the include several methods that are shown in the Figs. 1, [3], [5].
ideal combination of the chosen settings for these functions.
Results of fECG extraction are assessed by Percentage II. METHODS FOR FECG ELICITATION
Root-Mean-Square Difference (PRD), input and output Signal to
Noise Ratios (SNRs), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The interference elimination can be implemented using a
Based on simulations conclusions, optimal convergence constant single channel or a multichannel of the source signal. These
value and filter order were empirically determined. Setting the signals are then processed by various methods. These methods
optimal value of the convergence constant and filter order of can be divided into two groups – adaptive and non-adaptive. The
adaptive algorithm can be considered a contribution to original difference is in the existing or non-existing ability of the system
results. These results can be used on real records fECG, where it to adapt to the unexpected circumstances.
is difficult to determine because of the missing reference.

Keywords—fECG, mECG, adaptive filtering, Matlab, LMS,

NLMS, BLMS, DLMS

I. INTRODUCTION
The Fetal Electrocardiogram (fECG) describes the electrical
activity of the fetal heart and provides clinically significant
information about the physiological state of a fetus during the
pregnancy or the labor. Early diagnosis of the hypoxic states
(hypoxemia, hypoxia, and asphyxia) achieved by monitoring
fECG can increase the effectiveness of the treatment, [1], [2],
and [18].
There are two different techniques to record fECG – invasive
and noninvasive. The first one is the direct method of the
measurement that is provided transvaginally by an Invasive Fig. 2. Methods for fECG elicitation
Scalp Electrode (ISE). This method is considered to be accurate
because the signal is recorded directly from the fetal scalp, A. Non-adaptive methodologies
however it brings many problems and risks such as infections Non-adaptive methodologies include Wavelet Transform
for the mother and the child as well. Noninvasive techniques based techniques, Correlation methods, Subtraction
measure electrical signals by multichannel skin electrodes methodologies, Single Value Decomposition (SVD), Blind
placed on mother’s abdomen. This kind of measuring is more Subspace Separation (BSS), Averaging techniques, Finite
convenient, non-invasive and can be used not only during the Impulse Response (FIR) and Infinite Impulse Response (IIR)
labor but before it, too. On the other hand, signal measured by filtering, Wiener filtering and Fixed filtering methods such as
this method is characterized by a significant amount of Low Pass Filtering (LPF) and High Pass Filtering (HPF), [3],
overlapped undesired signals such as bioelectric potentials [19].
(maternal muscle activity, fetal movement activity, generated
potentials by respiration and stomach etc.), power line The drawback of the non-adaptive techniques is that they are
interference and mainly the component of the maternal heart time-invariant in nature, which has been overcome by the
activity [3], [4]. adaptive methods, which are more effective in reducing the

978-1-5090-2526-8/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

noise that is overlapping in time and frequency. Non-adaptive systems (more in [1], [6], [7], and [8]), genetic algorithms and
methods are useful for data pre-processing or for noise Bayesian adaptive filtering frame works which comprise
elimination in case of the classic ECG. Kalman filters.
B. Adaptive methodologies This paper focuses primarily on the Least Mean Squares
As mentioned before, an adaptive filter is a filter (LMS) based FIR Adaptive Filters methods. In the chapter
characterised by an ability to self-adjust the filter coefficients below there are mathematical descriptions of the most important
according to an optimized training algorithm which is driven by methods such as LMS, normative LMS (NLMS), BLMS and
a back propagated error signal. Adaptive filters are used in noise DLMS.
cancelation to remove the noise adaptively from a signal and to III. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
improve the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).
Least mean squares (LMS) algorithms are classified as
Simply it is a technique for adaptive elimination of undesired adaptive filters that can change the filter coefficients to become
signals (such as the maternal component) from the abdominal a system that produces the least mean squares of the error signal
signal to obtain the fECG signal. The system can adjust and alter (the difference between the desired and the actual signal). It is a
to the existing circumstances, and optimize its results. stochastic gradient descent method in that the filter is only
A theoretical multichannel adaptive noise cancelation adapted based on the error at the current time [9].
system shown in Fig. 2 illustrates an example of an adaptive A. Standard LMS
elicitation technique. It consists of two kinds of the input signals
recorded from multiple leads – the abdominal ECG signals The standard LMS algorithm performs the following operations
(AB1-ABn) and the thoracic ECG signals (TH1-THn). Each to update the coefficients of an adaptive filter:
abdominal signal consists of both maternal and fetal signals and x Calculates the output signal y(n) from the adaptive filter.
it is the primary input. The thoracic signal is considered to be
completely maternal and is used as the reference input. Finite x Calculates the error signal e(n) by using the following
Impulse Response Filter weights of the adaptive systems are equation:
updated by the training algorithms based on the back propagated
error signal, which is the desired fECG signal (fECG1-fECGn).  ( )= ( ) − ( ). 
The maternal component is considered to be an undesired signal x Updates the filter coefficients by using the following
for elimination. Each of the adaptive systems produces a signal
equation:
which is approximately the noise. This signal is subtracted with
the ECG signal so that the error signal that is back propagated to  ( + 1) = ( ) + 2 ( ) ( ), 
the training algorithm is the fetal heart signal with some noise.
where μ is the step size of the adaptive filter, w(n) is the filter
There are many different methodologies to obtain fECG coefficients vector, and x(n) is the filter input vector. Step size
using adaptive filters by using one or several maternal reference is a crucial parameter that can improve the convergence speed
channels (as shown in Fig. 1). These methodologies include least of the adaptive filter. It determines both how quickly and how
mean square (LMS) algorithms, recursive least square (RLS) closely the adaptive filter converges to the filter solution,
algorithms, artificial intelligence techniques, fuzzy inference >@>@

Fig. 2. A theoretical multichannel adaptive noise cancelation system

 2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

B. Normalized LMS (NLMS) to control the effectiveness of the fECG extraction - Percent
The normalized LMS (NLMS) algorithm is a modified form Root-Mean-Square Difference (PRD) and SNR.
of the standard LMS algorithm. The NLMS algorithm updates
the coefficients of an adaptive filter by using the following A. Percent Root-Mean-Square Difference (PRD)
equation: The PRD is one of the measure indexes commonly used in ECG
( ) compression literature ([8]) and it is determined by:
 ( + 1) = ( )+ ( )
‖ ( )‖
. 
2
∑ =1 ( )− ()
It is obvious that the NLMS algorithm is almost identical to   = ∙ 100 
standard LMS algorithm except that the NLMS algorithm has a ∑ =1 2 ()

time-varying step size μ(n), >@

where xorg denotes the original signal (ideal fECG) and xrec the
C. Block LMS (BLMS) signal recovered by the algorithm.
The Block LMS Filter block implements an adaptive least-
mean-square (LMS) filter, where the adaptation of filter The closer this value is to zero the similar are both signals.
weights occurs once for every block of samples. This algorithm The problem is the lack of an upper limit which makes it
difficult to compare figures from different pairs of signals, as it
provides significant improvements in decreasing mean-squared depends on the amplitude of the signals. That is why the paper
error (MSE) and consequently minimizing signal distortion. also focuses on the other parameters to reach the optimal quality
Instead of updating the filter vector for every sample as for of the extraction >@
the standard LMS in Eq. (1), the filter vector is updated once
every Lth sample B. Signal to noise ratio (SNR)
The weight update relation for BLMS algorithm is as
The relation between the signal and the noise is described
follows,
by SNR, whose expression is following:
 ( + 1) = ( ) + ∑ ( + ) ( + ), 
∑ ()
where the sample index n and block index k are related as:  SNRIN = 10∙ log  
∑ () ()

 = + .  where xorg denotes the original signal (ideal fECG) and xnoise the
This gives the filter output of BLMS algorithm in its final signal that is producing the undesired signal (mECG).
form as follows: ∑ ()
 SNROUT = 10∙ log  
 ( )= ( ) ( ).  ∑ () ()

D. Delay LMS (DLMS) where xorg denotes the original signal (ideal fECG) and xrec the
The DLMS algorithm is extensively used in different signal recovered by the algorithm.
applications of adaptive filtering due to low computational The SNR quantifies the relation between the fetal signal and
complexity and stability. The DLMS algorithm is introduced to the rest of the unwanted components (mECG). In the general
minimize the error between a given preferred signal and output fECG inverse problem, this is not an operative definition of the
of the linear filter by adjusting recursively the parameters of a
SNR, since it requires knowing the contribution of the fetal
linear filter. The weight update relation for DLMS algorithm is
as follows: signal and the noise. Since our signals are synthetic, this
information is available [13].
 ( ) ( − ) ( − ), 
C. Root mean square error (RMSE)
 ( ) ( − ) − ( − ),  The last parameter used in this paper is RMSE defined by
 ( + 1) ( ) + ( ) ( − ),  the following equation:

where D is the total delay inserted into the error feedback path  = ∑ − , 
of the LMS algorithm. If D = 0, then Eq. (7), Eq. (8) and
Eq. (9) represent the usual LMS adaptive algorithm. With the where sigorg denotes the original signal (ideal fECG) and sigrec
advantage of a higher throughput rate, the DLMS algorithm has the signal recovered by the algorithm.
the drawback of a slower convergence rate compared to the
LMS algorithm due to the inserted delay D. [11]  RMSE is a measure of the differences between values
predicted by a model or an estimator and the values observed.
IV. DEFINITION OF THE PARAMETERS The closer this value is to zero the more accurate is the system,
[14], [15].
The measurement of the quality of the fECG extraction
procedures is based on the estimation of the similarity of the
recovered signals and the ideal fECG signals and the absence
of the noise. There are two main parameters that can be helpful
 2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Each adaptive filter is used to extract fECG. Results of fECG
The authors’ goal is to provide results based on simulations extraction are assessed by the parameters introduced in the
with LMS based FIR Adaptive Filters contained in MATLAB® previous section. The attention is focused mainly on the value of
function ‘adaptfilt’. They suggest the ideal combination of the the parameter PRD, which should be reduced as much as
chosen settings for these functions based on the results of possible while maintaining the value of the SNR positive. That
Percentage Root-Mean-Square Difference (PRD), input and ensures that the output signal’s appearance is approaching the
output Signal to Noise Ratios (SNRs), and Root Mean Square ideal fECG and the amount of the noise remains smaller than the
Error (RMSE). signal. The parameter RMSE should be as close to zero as
possible.
Fig. 3 shows synthetic signals used for the experiments. The
signals included synthetic distorted abdominal signal, which was Using MATLAB® the value of the step size (μ) was set to
used as an input to the adaptive system and was created out of 0.1 and Adaptive filter length value (l), which is the number of
the synthetic thoracic (mECG) and ideal abdominal (fECG) coefficients or taps, defaults to 10. That is, however, inadequate
signal using FIR filter. in the case of fECG extraction.

For the first stage of the experiments, much more suitable

value of the filter length was chosen and remained constant
while the value of the step size altered. In the area where the
value of the PRD was the lowest, and the SNR was positive (the
filter is the most effective) the chosen values of the step size
altered minimally so reaching the ideal value would be possible.

Table I summarizes the results for each filter. DLMS and

BLMS filters optimal step sizes appear to be 0.0007 and for the
LMS filter 0.0006.

The values of the μ achieved in the previous step were

constant in the following step to find the ideal value of the filter
length. All the results are summarized in the Table II.

In Table III suggested setting for each filter based on the

results of the performance parameters can be seen. In the Fig. 4
Fig. 3. Synthetic signals used for the experiments. – 7 there are the examples of the synthetic signal before and
after the application of each filter with the setting that was
The synthetic ideal fetal signal was then used as the reference evaluated as the most suitable. There are also the ideal fetal
for the calculation of the performance parameters such as SNR, signal and the distorted abdominal signal plotted for the visual
PRD and RMSE. The value of the SNR before application of inspection of the quality of the results.
any used adaptive filter was -11.559 dB,

TABLE I. THE PARAMETERS OF THE QUALITY FOR EACH FILTER FOR THE DIFFERENT STEP SIZES

LMS DLMS BLMS

μ
(-) SNR PRD RMSE SNR PRD RMSE SNR PRD RMSE
(dB) (%) (-) (dB) (%) (-) (dB) (%) (-)
0.0001 -0.528 13.376 0.012 -0.53 13.393 0.012 -0.536 13.45 0.012
0.0004 -0.081 5.710 0.008 -0.085 5.737 0.008 -0.103 5.835 0.008
0.0005 -0.034 5.533 0.008 -0.039 5.566 0.008 -0.06 5.684 0.008
0.0006 0.003 5.533 0.008 -0.003 5.572 0.008 -0.026 5.713 0.008
0.0007 0.034 5.624 0.008 0.027 5.670 0.008 0.002 5.835 0.008
0.0008 0.061 5.765 0.008 0.053 5.817 0.008 0.026 6.008 0.008
0.0009 0.084 5.934 0.008 0.076 5.992 0.008 0.047 6.209 0.008
0.001 0.105 6.117 0.009 0.097 6.182 0.008 0.066 6.424 0.009
0.0011 0.124 6.308 0.009 0.116 6.378 0.009 0.083 6.645 0.009
0.01 0.673 15.725 0.013 0.65 15.935 0.014 0.292 22.366 0.016
 2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

TABLE II. THE PARAMETERS OF THE QUALITY FOR EACH FILTER FOR DIFFERENT FILTER LENGTH
LMS NLMS DLMS BLMS
Filter length μ=0.0006 offset=10, step=0.1 μ=0.0007 μ=0.0007
(-) SNR PRD Time SNR PRD Time SNR PRD Time SNR PRD Time
(dB) (%) (s) (dB) (%) (s) (dB) (%) (s) (dB) (%) (s)
1 -6.178 305.856 7.422 -5.995 291.558 13.123 -6.149 303.332 6.954 -6.153 303.674 0.934

5 -5.262 230.978 8.245 -4.185 163.086 9.211 -5.215 227.617 8.810 -5.234 228.879 1.082

10 -3.234 108.863 8.224 -1.374 42.68 9.176 -3.051 100.552 8.747 -3.076 101.452 1.133

15 -1.415 38.98 8.140 -0.491 20.756 9.192 -1.292 35.546 8.815 -1.321 36.1 1.168

20 -0.58 16.592 8.302 -0.051 12.805 9.341 -0.522 15.594 8.822 -0.551 15.975 1.297

25 -0.184 8.362 8.325 0.193 9.696 9.461 -0.15 8.149 8.839 -0.176 8.381 I.36

30 0.003 5.533 8.292 0.302 9.316 9.321 0.027 5.670 9.340 0.002 5.835 1.375

35 0.077 5.199 8.414 0.348 9.984 9.417 0.096 5.511 8.871 0.069 5.695 1.337

40 0.103 5.703 8.325 0.379 10.753 9.342 0.121 6.075 8.888 0.09 6.306 1.334

50 0.133 6.562 8.511 0.441 12.099 9.379 0.152 6.969 9.098 0.116 7.264 1.442

75 0.206 8.140 8.568 0.58 15.198 9.479 0.229 8.714 9.179 0.182 9.120 1.679

100 0.282 9.748 8.661 0.696 18.138 9.659 0.308 10.458 9.610 0.252 10.957 1.869

150 0.433 13.063 8.759 0.924 22.966 9.858 0.468 14.043 9.442 0.396 14.785 2.345

200 0.557 15.459 9.725 1.103 27.077 10.727 0.593 16.581 10.803 0.505 17.466 2.859

The results had shown successful reduction of the undesired

signals. All of the performance parameters had been improved
after the application of the adaptive filters. All of the filters’
best results (according to the values of the parameters PRD,
SNR and RMSE) appeared with the value of filter length in
interval 30-35 and the filter step size 0.0006-0.0007.

TABLE III. OPTIMAL VALUES OF THE PARAMETERS

Parameters
Filter
Step Length
LMS 0.0006 30

NLMS - 35

DLMS 0.0007 30 Fig. 4. Adaptive filter BLMS

BLMS 0.0007 30

The worst results belong to the NLMS filter. It also has the
negative of a very low filtering speed. The BLMS filter
outperforms the other filters. The filtering speed is incomparably
faster with the same quality of the output signal.

Fig. 5. Adaptive filter DLMS

 2016 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP)

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