Cross-correlation analysis of multichannel uterine EMG signals

The prevention of preterm labor remains one of the primary goals of obstetric research. One way to achieve this goal effectively is to understand the mechanisms regulating the uterine contractility. Herein, we evaluate the correlation between uterine electrical activities recorded from spatially-distributed regions by calculating the nonlinear regression coefficient. Results have shown that, during pregnancy, the degree of interdependence between signals is very high whereas, at labor, the correlation between the signals decreases remarkably. We conclude that pregnancy is characterized by the presence of few local potential sources dominating the other sources while at the onset of labor, the number of these sources increases remarkably which affects therefore the correlation between the signals.