Uterine contraction signals--application of the linear synchronization measures

In physiological research, there are not too many studies on multivariate data sets, containing two or more simultaneously recorded time series. It is important to examine synchronization in these kinds of signals. The aim of this study is to present the linear measures: the cross-correlation function, the coherence function, the wavelet cross-correlation and the wavelet coherence to assess synchronization between contractions in different topographic regions of the uterus.

Spontaneous uterine activity was recorded directly by a dual micro-tip catheter (Millar Instruments, Inc., USA). The device consisted of two ultra-miniature pressure sensors. One sensor was placed in the fundus, the other one in the cervix. For this analysis, a healthy patient with normal contractions, a patient with dysmenorrhea, a patient with fibromyomas in the follicular phase, and the patient with endometriosis were selected.

For each method the values of synchronization parameters for normal contractions were higher than the values of these parameters for other pairs of signals. The differences between these four groups of the uterine contraction signals were clear. The lowest values of the synchronization measures were in the case of dysmenorrheic patient.

The analysis of synchronization of the uterine contractions signals may have a diagnostic value. For intrauterine pressure signals results obtained by means of different synchronization methods are different, but consistent.