Preclinical Evaluation of a Noncontact Simultaneous Monitoring Method for Respiration and Carotid Pulsation Using Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband Radar

Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 15;9(1):11892. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48386-9.

Abstract

There has been the possibility for respiration and carotid pulsation to be simultaneously monitored from a distance using impulse-radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar. Therefore, we investigated the validity of simultaneous respiratory rates (RR), pulse rates (PR) and R-R interval measurement using IR-UWB radar. We included 19 patients with a normal sinus rhythm (NSR) and 14 patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF). The RR, PR, R-R interval and rhythm were obtained simultaneously from the right carotid artery area in a supine position and under normal breathing conditions using IR-UWB radar. There was excellent agreement between the RR obtained by IR-UWB radar and that manually counted by a physician (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] 0.852). In the NSR group, there was excellent agreement between the PR (ICC 0.985), average R-R interval (ICC 0.999), and individual R-R interval (ICC 0.910) measured by IR-UWB radar and electrocardiography. In the PeAF group, PR (ICC 0.930), average R-R interval (ICC 0.957) and individual R-R interval (ICC 0.701) also agreed well between the two methods. These results demonstrate that IR-UWB radar can simultaneously monitor respiration, carotid pulse and heart rhythm with high precision and may thus be utilized as a noncontact continuous vital sign monitoring in clinical practice.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Atrial Fibrillation / diagnosis
  • Atrial Fibrillation / diagnostic imaging
  • Carotid Arteries / diagnostic imaging*
  • Carotid Sinus
  • Electrocardiography
  • Female
  • Heart Rate
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / methods*
  • Pulse*
  • Radar*
  • Radio Waves*
  • Respiration*
  • Respiratory Rate
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted