Optode Design Space Exploration for Clinically-robust Non-invasive Fetal Oximetry

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Physics
• Obstetrics

Background:

• Non-invasive transabdominal fetal oximetry (TFO) offers an objective measure of fetal well-being during labor.
• TFO technology involves transmitting light through maternal tissues to assess fetal oxygenation.
• Variations in maternal anatomy significantly impact fetal depth, complicating TFO system design and performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a methodology for optimizing optical probe (optode) design for transabdominal fetal oximetry.
• To address the challenge of varying fetal depths due to anatomical differences among pregnant women.
• To balance competing design objectives of hardware complexity and performance robustness across diverse patient populations.

Main Methods:

• Framing optode design as a multi-objective optimization problem, considering cost and robustness.
• Employing a model-based approach to characterize Pareto-optimal points in the design space.
• Utilizing simulation and in vivo measurements on pregnant sheep for experimental validation.

Main Results:

• A methodology was presented for systematic optode design space exploration.
• The approach effectively characterized trade-offs between hardware complexity and performance robustness.
• Simulations and in vivo experiments validated the proposed methodology's efficacy.

Conclusions:

• The developed methodology enables optimized optode design for TFO systems.
• This optimization enhances the robustness and reliability of fetal well-being monitoring.
• The approach holds potential for improving delivery outcomes through better fetal assessment during labor.