Two Proximal Skin Electrodes — A Respiration Rate Body Sensor

Abstract

We propose a new body sensor for extracting the respiration rate based on the amplitude changes in the body surface potential differences between two proximal body electrodes. The sensor could be designed as a plaster-like reusable unit that can be easily fixed onto the surface of the body. It could be equipped either with a sufficiently large memory for storing the measured data or with a low-power radio system that can transmit the measured data to a gateway for further processing. We explore the influence of the sensor's position on the quality of the extracted results using multi-channel ECG measurements and considering all the pairs of two neighboring electrodes as potential respiration-rate sensors. The analysis of the clinical measurements, which also include reference thermistor-based respiration signals, shows that the proposed approach is a viable option for monitoring the respiration frequency and for a rough classification of breathing types. The obtained results were evaluated on a wireless prototype of a respiration body sensor. We indicate the best positions for the respiration body sensor and prove that a single sensor for body surface potential difference on proximal skin electrodes can be used for combined measurements of respiratory and cardiac activities.

Wireless electrocardiographic monitoring in veterinary medicine

“…Beside the wearing comfort, which is achieved by reducing the number and length of the wires, these devices have very high reliability [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. In human medicine supporting clinical validation data on wireless body electrodes grow [1,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12], but in veterinary medicine this is to our knowledge the first report of the ECG data obtained in animals with a wireless body electrode attached to the skin and connected to a smart phone (tablet) via low power Bluetooth technology. The aim of these pilot measurements was to find out whether the limitations of the conventional Holter monitoring could be surmounted.…”

Telehealth using ECG sensor and accelerometer

“…heart rate determination, arrhythmia identification and characterization, ST segment denivelation, etc. For example, to determine the respiration rate, we found the best positions for the respiration body sensor [16] and proved that a single sensor of body surface potentials difference on proximal skin electrodes can be used for combined measurements of respiratory and cardiac activities (Fig.4).…”

“…As a successful case, we refer to the respiration rate extraction directly from WBBE [16]. We confirmed that several DLs on positions near the center of the chest provide adequate signals for ECG-derived respiration (EDR) algorithms that can reliably extract respiration rates from variations in the R-peak amplitudes.…”

“…An additional feature is the ability to extract hidden information from the body surface potential, like the respiration rate [16], or combine synchronized data from three sensors for reconstruction of the standard 12-lead ECG [17,18].…”

A method for time-domain analysis of respiratory sinus arrhythmia

“…The method presented can be applied retrospectively to ECG measurements in cases where breathing pattern is measured simultaneously or can be reconstructed from the ECG data [20]. The proposed methodology can be used in ambulatory environment to measure the vagal activity or to follow the level of functional re-innervation of transplanted hearts.…”