A Device for Respiratory Monitoring during Nutritive Sucking: Response to Neonatal Breathing Patterns

The quantitative monitoring of breathing, sucking, and swallowing is required to predict newborns' neurodevelopmental outcomes. In particular, the coordination of breathing timing with respect to sucking cycle is crucial. In this work, we present the characterization of a low-cost flowmeter designed for noninvasive recording of breathing pattern during bottle feeding. The transducer is designed to be integrated on a commercial feeding bottle also instrumented with a system for sucking monitoring. The flowmeter consists of two transistors (hot bodies) supplied at constant current, which are placed in a duct used to convey the inspiratory and expiratory flow coming from the newborn's nostrils. The transducer design, its static calibration, and its response time are discussed. Moreover, a custom-made active lung simulator was used to perform a feasibility assessment of the proposed flowmeter for respiratory monitoring of neonatal respiratory patterns. The flowmeter has a discrimination threshold <0.5 L·min−1and a response time of347±12 ms. The breathing period estimated by the proposed transducer was compared with the one measured by a high performance flowmeter, used as reference: the mean absolute error was <11%. Results highlighted the ability of the device to track respiratory patterns at frequencies typical of neonatal breathing

Contactless Monitoring of Breathing Patterns and Respiratory Rate at the Pit of the Neck: A Single Camera Approach

Vital signs monitoring is pivotal not only in clinical settings but also in home environments. Remote monitoring devices, systems, and services are emerging as tracking vital signs must be performed on a daily basis. Different types of sensors can be used to monitor breathing patterns and respiratory rate. However, the latter remains the least measured vital sign in several scenarios due to the intrusiveness of most adopted sensors. In this paper, we propose an inexpensive, off-the-shelf, and contactless measuring system for respiration signals taking as region of interest the pit of the neck. The system analyses video recorded by a single RGB camera and extracts the respiratory pattern from intensity variations of reflected light at the level of the collar bones and above the sternum. Breath-by-breath respiratory rate is then estimated from the processed breathing pattern. In addition, the effect of image resolution on monitoring breathing patterns and respiratory rate has been investigated. The proposed system was tested on twelve healthy volunteers (males and females) during quiet breathing at different sensor resolution (i.e., HD 720, PAL, WVGA, VGA, SVGA, and NTSC). Signals collected with the proposed system have been compared against a reference signal in both the frequency domain and time domain. By using the HD 720 resolution, frequency domain analysis showed perfect agreement between average breathing frequency values gathered by the proposed measuring system and reference instrument. An average mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.55 breaths/min was assessed in breath-by-breath monitoring in the time domain, while Bland-Altman showed a bias of −0.03 ± 1.78 breaths/min. Even in the case of lower camera resolution setting (i.e., NTSC), the system demonstrated good performances (MAE of 1.53 breaths/min, bias of −0.06 ± 2.08 breaths/min) for contactless monitoring of both breathing pattern and breath-by-breath respiratory rate over time

THORACOABDOMINAL MOTION DURING DIFFERENT EXERCISES OF CLASSICAL BALLET: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Once classical ballet requires high skill, physiological demand and intense exercises, the ballet dancers could develop different thoracoabdominal motions. In this work, we analyzed the thoracoabdominal motion of breathing maneuvers at rest situations and during different exercises of classical ballet. 32 retro reflective markers were attached to the trunk of three amateur ballet dancers to obtain the compartmental volumes variation (superior and inferior thorax and abdomen) and the coordination between them. They executed two breathing maneuvers (quiet breathing and vital capacity) and three ballet exercises (adagio, allegro and fouette turn). The results suggest that, in rest situations, ballet dancers can coordinate breathing movements, but during the exercises, they changed their thoracoabdominal motion causing a decrease in the coordination

A Wearable System for Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Physical Activity

Over the last decades, wearable systems have gained interest for monitoring of physiological variables, promoting health, and improving exercise adherence in different populations ranging from elite athletes to patients. In this paper, we present a wearable system for the continuous real-time monitoring of respiratory frequency (fR), heart rate (HR), and movement cadence during physical activity. The system has been experimentally tested in the laboratory (by simulating the breathing pattern with a mechanical ventilator) and by collecting data from one healthy volunteer. Results show the feasibility of the proposed device for real-time continuous monitoring of fR, HR, and movement cadence both in resting condition and during activity. Finally, different synchronization techniques have been investigated to enable simultaneous data collection from different wearable modules.Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

Smart textile for respiratory monitoring and thoraco-abdominal motion pattern evaluation

The use of wearable systems for monitoring vital parameters has gained wide popularity in several medical fields. The focus of the present study is the experimental assessment of a smart textile based on 12 fiber Bragg grating sensors for breathing monitoring and thoraco‐abdominal motion pattern analysis. The feasibility of the smart textile for monitoring several temporal respiratory parameters (ie, breath‐by‐breath respiratory period, breathing frequency, duration of inspiratory and expiratory phases), volume variations of the whole chest wall and of its compartments is performed on 8 healthy male volunteers. Values gathered by the textile are compared to the data obtained by a motion analysis system, used as the reference instrument. Good agreement between the 2 systems on both respiratory period (bias of 0.01 seconds), breathing frequency (bias of −0.02 breaths/min) and tidal volume (bias of 0.09 L) values is demonstrated. Smart textile shows good performance in the monitoring of thoraco‐abdominal pattern and its variation, as well

Error of a temperature probe for cancer ablation monitoring caused by respiratory movements: Ex vivo and in vivo analysis

Hyperthermal techniques are spreading as an alternative to conventional surgery for cancer removal. A real-time temperature feedback can be used to adjust the treatment settings, in order to improve the clinical outcomes. In this paper, we experimentally assessed the feasibility for distributed temperature monitoring of a custom probe, which consists of a needle embedding six fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs)

Linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating response to thermal gradient: from bench tests to the real-time assessment during in vivo laser ablations of biological tissue

The response of a fiber optic sensor [linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG)] to a linear thermal gradient applied on its sensing length (i.e., 1.5 cm) has been investigated. After these bench tests, we assessed their feasibility for temperature monitoring during thermal tumor treatment. In particular, we performed experi- ments during ex vivo laser ablation (LA) in pig liver and in vivo thermal ablation in animal models (pigs). We investigated the following: (i) the relationship between the full width at half maximum of the LCFBG spectrum and the temperature difference among the extremities of the LCFBG and (ii) the relationship between the mean spectrum wavelength and the mean temperature acting on the LCFBG sensing area. These relationships showed a linear trend during both bench tests and LA in animal models. Thermal sensitivity was significant although different values were found with regards to bench tests and animal experiments. The linear trend and significant sensitivity allow hypothesizing a future use of this kind of sensor to monitor both temperature gradient and mean temperature within a tissue undergoing thermal treatment