Avalon Smart Pulse is now available worldwide, announced Royal Philips Electronic recently. The equipment can mechanically identify the condition where fetal heart rate could be confounded with maternal pulse and the equipment performs this without the requirement of applying supplementary electrodes or sensors.
The technology Avalon Smart Pulse is constructed into the Toco MP transducer is a novel uterine activity transducer, which is generally positioned on abdomen of the mother to record uterine contractions during labor and birth. Conventionally, clinicians hinge on two methods to gauge maternal pulse, one is ECG and other is SpO2.
However, in most pregnancies, these are not monitored generally. In circumstances where ECG and SpO2 statistics are not assembled, Smart Pulse automatically starts to happen to offer the maternal pulse reading. As Smart Pulse is part of routine monitoring and by constantly scheming without the need for added wires or sensors, it provides console for mothers.
With the help of a heart rate comparison method known as coincidence detection in which the maternal pulse is constantly matched with the fetal heart rate. It provides an essential backup to the conventional ECG electrodes or SpO2 sensors, which may become disconnected or are not used at all.
The technology is used to determine when the maternal heart rate is being picked up rather than the intended fetal heart rate. They call this as Cross Channel Verification (CCV), an algorithm which was introduced several years ago.
CCV compares the maternal pulse with the fetal heart rate and if they correlate for some time, a fluke caution is issued. However, up till now, this needed either connecting an additional ECG cable and electrodes to the mother, or attaching a pulse oximeter sensor to the mother. It is an additional step, which is frequently not used.
The distinctive Smart Pulse equipment allows identifying measurement of the maternal pulse through the same toco transducer that monitors the contractions and applied in everyday fetal heart rate monitoring. Meant both mother and baby are being monitored, even though the ECG and SpO2 sensors are not used.
According to David Russell, Philips Healthcare VP and General Manager of Mother and Child Care, the beauty of the Smart Pulse method is that it is integrated into the Toco transducer that is positioned on the mother’s abdomen and therefore cannot be forgotten, and is consequently always on. This gives the caregivers assurance that both mother and baby are being monitored.
source : http://medgadget.com