Clinical evaluation of a wearable sensor for mobile monitoring of respiratory rate on hospital wards

Abstract

Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).A wireless and wearable system was recently developed for mobile monitoring of respiratory rate (RR). The present study was designed to compare RR mobile measurements with reference capnographic measurements on a medical-surgical ward. The wearable sensor measures impedance variations of the chest from two thoracic and one abdominal electrode. Simultaneous measurements of RR from the wearable sensor and from the capnographic sensor (1 measure/minute) were compared in 36 ward patients. Patients were monitored for a period of 182 ± 56 min (range 68–331). Artifact-free RR measurements were available 81% of the monitoring time for capnography and 92% for the wearable monitoring system (p 20 (tachypnea) with a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 93%. In ward patients, the wearable sensor enabled accurate and precise measurements of RR within a relatively broad range (6–36 b/min) and the detection of tachypnea with high sensitivity and specificity.Peer reviewe