Cardiac Vector Estimation in Fetal Magnetocardiography Using Realistic Approximations of the Volume Conductor

Fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) records the magnetic field generated by the electrical activity associated with the fetal cardiac muscle contraction and has emerged as an attractive tool for monitoring the fetal heart in-utero. The magnetic sensor array is placed above the maternal abdomen to receive the extremely weak magnetic signal of the fetal heart from 20 weeks of gestation onward. fMCG outperforms fetal electrocardiography (fECG) in its notably superior signal quality, as the magnetic field is considerably less affected by tissues with low electrical conductivity surrounding the fetal heart [1], which can drastically diminish the fECG signal amplitude.