A deep learning approach to grading neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy using ECG spectrograms*

Rezaei, Kimia; Mathieson, Sean R.; Lightbody, Gordon; Boylan, Geraldine B.; Marnane, William P.

A deep learning approach to grading neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy using ECG spectrograms*

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Files

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Published Version

Date

2025-12-03

Authors

Rezaei, Kimia

Mathieson, Sean R.

Lightbody, Gordon

Boylan, Geraldine B.

Marnane, William P.

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Published Version

10.1109/EMBC58623.2025.11253390

Abstract

The grade of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), a condition caused by cerebral oxygen deprivation, can be determined through analysis of Electroencephalogram (EEG). Neonates with moderate to severe HIE can be treated with therapeutic hypothermia, which has prompted the development of an automatic HIE grading system. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are easier and more accessible to obtain than the EEG in the Neonatal Unit and may help grade HIE. This research explores two different approaches for grading HIE, leveraging a large ECG dataset from newborns. The classical approach involves calculating heart rate (HR) from ECG signal followed by feature extraction in both time and frequency domains and classification using Random Forest and multilayer perceptron. In contrast, the proposed approach extracts the spectrograms directly from the ECG signal to serve as input for a convolutional neural network. The results indicate that the proposed method achieves a higher AUC while bypassing the time-consuming process of HR calculation and enabling the use of more robust deep learning models.Clinical relevance— Utilizing newborn ECG signals as an alternative to EEG signals for automatic HIE grading may provide a more accessible method for clinicians to grade encephalopathy and evaluate the need for hypothermia treatment.

Keywords

Deep learning , Heart rate , Hospitals , Electrocardiography , Multilayer perceptrons , Brain modeling , Feature extraction , Electroencephalography , Spectrogram , Random forests

Citation

Rezaei, K., Mathieson, S.R., Lightbody, G., Boylan, G.B. and Marnane, W.P. (2025) 'A deep learning approach to grading neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy using ecg spectrograms*', 2025 47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 14-18, pp. 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC58623.2025.11253390