Neonatal Bowel Sound Detection Using Convolutional Neural Network and Laplace Hidden Semi-Markov Model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel neonatal bowel sound detection method combining CNN and Laplace HSMM, achieving high accuracy and AUC, and outperforming existing methods to aid neonatal care and telehealth.

Contribution

It presents a new CNN-based classification combined with Laplace HSMM refinement for neonatal bowel sound detection, improving accuracy and robustness.

Findings

Achieved 89.81% accuracy and 83.96% AUC in detection.

Outperformed 13 baseline methods.

Laplace HSMM enhances other bowel sound detection models.

Abstract

Abdominal auscultation is a convenient, safe and inexpensive method to assess bowel conditions, which is essential in neonatal care. It helps early detection of neonatal bowel dysfunctions and allows timely intervention. This paper presents a neonatal bowel sound detection method to assist the auscultation. Specifically, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is proposed to classify peristalsis and non-peristalsis sounds. The classification is then optimized using a Laplace Hidden Semi-Markov Model (HSMM). The proposed method is validated on abdominal sounds from 49 newborn infants admitted to our tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The results show that the method can effectively detect bowel sounds with accuracy and area under curve (AUC) score being 89.81% and 83.96% respectively, outperforming 13 baseline methods. Furthermore, the proposed Laplace HSMM refinement strategy is proven capable to enhance other bowel sound detection models. The outcomes of this work have the potential to facilitate future telehealth applications for neonatal care. The source code of our work can be found at: https://bitbucket.org/chirudeakin/neonatal-bowel-sound-classification/