Scaling analysis of paces of fetal breathing, gross-body and extremity movements

Using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), we studied the scaling properties of the time instances (occurrence) of the fetal breathing, gross-body, and extremity movements scored on a second by second basis from the recorded ultrasound measurements of 49 fetuses. The DFA exponent α of all the three...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica A 2007-12, Vol.386 (1), p.231-239
Main Authors: Govindan, R.B., Wilson, J.D., Murphy, P., Russel, W.A., Lowery, C.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological signal processing
Time series
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), we studied the scaling properties of the time instances (occurrence) of the fetal breathing, gross-body, and extremity movements scored on a second by second basis from the recorded ultrasound measurements of 49 fetuses. The DFA exponent α of all the three movements of the fetuses varied between 0.63 and 1.1. We found an increase in α obtained for the movement due to breathing as a function of the gestational age while this trend was not observed for gross-body and extremity movements. This trend was argued as the indication of the maturation of lung and functional development of respiratory aspect of the fetal central nervous system. This result may be useful in discriminating normal fetuses from high-risk fetuses.
ISSN:0378-4371
1873-2119
DOI:10.1016/j.physa.2007.08.021