Preterm birth, or delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, affects about 10% of pregnancies worldwide and is the leading cause of infant death, yet the causes behind it are poorly understood.
A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing an at-home wearable device that would monitor electrical and mechanical signals in the uterus during pregnancy and labor, with a four-year $920,769 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Chuan Wang, an associate professor, and Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research and graduate education, both in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering; and Yong Wang, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of radiology at WashU Medicine and of biomedical engineering and of electrical and systems engineering at McKelvey Engineering, are leading the research.
The device, made of soft, stretchable, wireless sensors, would provide insight into uterine activity and provide that data into a specially designed platform that will use machine-learning algorithms for better signal quality and real-time monitoring. The electrodes on the abdomen would simultaneously record high-quality electrical and mechanical signals from the mother and the fetus, generating a 3D map of uterine contraction activities.
Read more on the McKelvey Engineering website.
