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Monitoring respiration in wheezy preschool children by pulse oximetry plethysmogram analysis

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether respiratory information can be derived from pulse oximetry plethysmogram (pleth) recordings in acutely wheezy preschool children. A digital pulse oximeter was connected via ‘Bluetooth’ to a notebook computer in order to acquire pleth data. Low pass filtering and frequency analysis were used to derive respiratory rate from the pleth trace; the ratio of heart rate to respiratory rate (HR/RR) was also calculated. Recordings were obtained during acute wheezy episodes in 18 children of median age 31 months and follow-up recordings from 16 of the children were obtained when they were wheeze-free. For the acutely wheezy children, frequency analysis of the pleth waveform was within 10 breaths/min of clinical assessment in 25 of 29 recordings in 15 children. For the follow-up measurements, frequency analysis of the pleth waveform showed similarly good agreement in recordings on 15 of the 16 children. Respiratory rate was higher (p < 0.001), and HR/RR ratio was lower (p = 0.03) during acute wheeze than at follow-up. This study suggests that respiratory rate can be derived from pleth traces in wheezy preschool children.

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Abbreviations

FFT:

Fast Fourier transform

HR:

Heart rate

LPF:

Low pass filter

Pleth:

Pulse oximetry plethysmogram

RR:

Respiratory rate

SpO2 :

Oxygen saturation

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for assistance received from the nursing staff of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton.

Conflict of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, Kingston University, Kingston, UK

    David Wertheim

  2. Respiratory Care, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, UK

    Cathy Olden, Liz Symes, Heike Rabe & Paul Seddon

Authors
  1. David Wertheim
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  2. Cathy Olden
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  3. Liz Symes
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  4. Heike Rabe
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  5. Paul Seddon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Wertheim.

Additional information

This report presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Research for Patient Benefit Programme (PB-PG-0706-10504). The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

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Wertheim, D., Olden, C., Symes, L. et al. Monitoring respiration in wheezy preschool children by pulse oximetry plethysmogram analysis. Med Biol Eng Comput 51, 965–970 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-013-1068-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-013-1068-z

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