Fetal PCG Database

Data Description

The project collects a series of 26 fetal phonocardiographic (PCG) signals from different pregnant women during the last months of their singleton physiological pregnancies (gestational week between 31 and 40). All women were healthy and aged between 25 and 35 years old. The files were recorded in a private clinical practice in 2010 by means of a portable phonocardiographic device (Fetaphon Monitoring System by Pentavox) during sessions lasting 20 minutes on average. The data was digitized with a sampling frequency of 333 Hz at 8-bits ADC; for each file, gestational week (GW) and patient id (P) are reported in the file name.

The data were used to design software for fetal PCG signal simulation, and to develop and test algorithms for fetal heart rate extraction. All the details are described in the sources.

In the recordings, it is possible to recognize the couple of the first and second heart sounds (S1 and S2 wavelets) where the signal is less corrupted by noise. The noise sources can be various, such as vibrations created by maternal heart sounds, maternal body organ sounds (due to maternal digestion, respiratory muscular movements, and placental blood turbulence), fetal movements, and the surrounding environment.

Recording information:

• Gestational week (GW) and patient ID (P)are included in the file name
• Sampling rate: 333 Hz
• Resolution: 8 bits (Format 80)
• The unit of measure is arbitrary since the phonocardiograph device supplies a normalized output
• Gain is set to 0.005 for the WAVE display scale to be consistent with the previous simulated PCG data.

Project collaborators

Mariano Ruffo, Mario Cesarelli, Maria Romano, and Paolo Bifulco, all from the University of Naples, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Napoli, Italy.

This project is a continuation of the Simulated Fetal PCGs project.