Use of a Hybrid Method ICA-PCA-ICA for Fetal Electrocardiography Extraction

The paper deals with non-invasive processing of the fetal electrocardiogram (fECG) using hybrid methods, which combine two and more transabdominal methods. The experiment focuses on testing and analysis of hybrid method combining Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The evaluation of the extraction is made by determination of the heart rate variability of fetus (fHRV) and Bland-Altman analysis. The use of this hybrid method provides better results than in case of simple ICA method. The proposed hybrid method proved a good performance in 7 from 12 recordings and a possibility to introduce the method to the clinical practice.