# A self-capacitance driven wearable electromyometrial imaging system for maternal and fetal monitoring during pregnancy and labor

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $330,982

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Approximately 10% of pregnant women give birth preterm In the United States and worldwide, which not only
results in a high rate of fetal mortality but also puts the children at a lifelong risk of negative health consequences
such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and visual and hearing impairments. Despite years of research, the
mechanisms of initiation and propagation of uterine contractions resulting in preterm labor and birth remain
unknown. In large part, this is because of our limited ability to monitor the human uterine contractions with
sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions. This leads to a lack of critical knowledge of the pathologic factors that
alter the normal uterine maturation, initiate preterm labor, and result in preterm birth. In order to address this
unmet clinical and research need, our team has recently developed a novel high-resolution and noninvasive
electromyometrial imaging (EMMI) system, which uses up to 256 unipolar electrodes to measure uterine
electrograms from the patient's abdomen surface and then combines the patient-specific body-uterus geometry
obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate accurate and robust three-dimensional maps of
uterine electrical activity during contractions. Because such a powerful experimental tool could permit closer and
more precise study of birth-related risks and improve maternal and child outcomes, we believe there could be a
significant clinical impact for us to develop a low-cost, wireless, and wearable version in order to make this
imaging technology more accessible for outpatient or in-home monitoring settings.
 We propose to develop and validate the functionality of a unique wearable EMMI system with printed
disposable electrodes, wireless power delivery, and telemetry for continuously monitoring of the uterine
contraction activities in ambulatory patients. The proposed research activity will involve developing of ultrathin
soft sensor patches with printed stretchable electrodes for recording high quality electrograms from the patient’s
abdomen and generating accurate and robust 3D maps of the uterine surface; investigating and designing a
novel self-capacitance based wireless power transfer instrumentation for wirelessly powering all the sensing and
telemetry circuits at each recording site in a fully distributed high-density imaging system; validating the wireless
and wearable EMMI system in human subjects and benchmarking its performance against “gold standard” wired
EMMI system. Upon successful completion of this study, the entirely new wearable, wireless, and batteryless
imaging system developed in the project will facilitate EMMI's clinical translations, allow it to be used outside the
delivery room for outpatient setting or in-home monitoring applications, and ultimately enable us to leverage the
electrical mapping data for evaluating uterine electrical maturation and contraction patterns during pregnancy
and labor and use the results...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10853085
- **Project number:** 5R01HD105905-03
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Chuan Wang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $330,982
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-07-15 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10853085

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10853085, A self-capacitance driven wearable electromyometrial imaging system for maternal and fetal monitoring during pregnancy and labor (5R01HD105905-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10853085. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*