Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Biomedical Engineering
Date Submitted: Mar 10, 2023
Date Accepted: Sep 7, 2023
Continuous critical respiratory parameter measurements using a single low-cost relative humidity sensor: Evaluation study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Accurate and portable respiratory parameter measurement is critical for properly managing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPDs) such as asthma or sleep apnea, as well as controlling ventilation for patients in intensive care units, during surgical procedures, or when using a PAP device for sleep apnea.
Objective:
The purpose of this research is to develop a new non-prescription portable measurement device that utilizes relative humidity sensors (RHS) to accurately measure key respiratory parameters at a cost that is approximately ten times less than the industry standard.
Methods:
We compare the measurements of respiratory parameters using our wearable device comprised of a simple relative humidity sensor (RHS) to the gold standard method utilizing the Pneumotach (PNT) device [1]. The RHS is connected to the external connector of the PNT in order to collect breathing data. Using this method, we compare the breathing cycle and respiratory rate (RR) measurements simultaneously. The Tidal Volume (TD) is then determined by calculating the area between the inhale and exhale peaks.
Results:
The perfused air measured by the respiratory monitor enables clinicians to evaluate the absolute value of the tidal volume during ventilation of a patient. In contrast, directly connecting our RHS device to the surgical mask facilitates continuous lung volume monitoring. The results of the one-way ANOVA show a high p value of P=0.68 for respiratory volume and P=0.89 for respiratory rate which indicates that the group averages of the PNT standard are equivalent to our RHS platform, within the error margins of a typical instrument. Furthermore, analysis utilizing the Bland-Altman statistical method reveals a small bias of 0.03 with LoAs of -0.25 and 0.33. The RR bias is 0.018, and the LoA is -1.89 and 1.89.
Conclusions:
As demonstrated, these RHS can be incorporated into wearable medical devices as a low-cost alternative pulmonary parametric measurement to prevent and predict the progression of pulmonary diseases.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.