Abstract
The present study aimed to verify the inter and intra-examiner reliability of an interactive custom-made MATLAB® App for bio-photogrammetric analysis of thoracoabdominal mobility in newborns and compare the respiratory rate (RR) results between the automatic MATLAB® App and its manual counterpart. This is a cross-sectional study conducted in 27 healthy newborns of both sexes (gestational age between 37 and 41weeks and up to 72h of life) who did not cry during data acquisition. Chest and abdominal areas of the subjects in the supine position were analyzed through 60s videos, totaling 30,714 photograms. All photograms were analyzed by three examiners on three different occasions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were applied, adopting a 95% confidence interval and significance level of α = 0.05. Reliability was excellent for intra (ICC 0.81-0.96) and inter-examiner correlations (ICC 0.84-0.99) between the chest and abdominal areas, in both inspiration and expiration, with no differences between them. Evaluation of newborns' thoracoabdominal mobility using the custom-made MATLAB® App for bio-photogrammetric analysis exhibited good to excellent intra- and inter-examiner reliability and an excellent correlation between manual and automatic models for measuring RR. Thus, it proved to be an objective and practical tool for bedside thoracoabdominal mobility assessment in different clinical situations involving neonatal care.
Highlights
Thoracoabdominal mobility (TAM) in newborns (NB) is an important respiratory function parameter in clinical assessment
Evaluation of NB thoracoabdominal mobility using the custom-made MATLAB® App for bio-photogrammetric analysis exhibited good to excellent intra- and inter-examiner reliability and an excellent correlation between manual and automatic models for measuring respiratory rate (RR)
Thoracoabdominal mobility (TAM) in newborns (NB) is an important respiratory function parameter in clinical assessment, since it is closely related to alveolar ventilation, inspiratory muscle strength and pulmonary capacity [1,2,3]
Summary
Thoracoabdominal mobility (TAM) in newborns (NB) is an important respiratory function parameter in clinical assessment. Some currently available methods have been designed to evaluate lung volume, capacities, limitations and breathing patterns in NB in an efficient and non-invasive manner, such as optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP) [9, 10], inductive respiratory plethysmography (IRP) [11] and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) [12]. These are mostly restricted to laboratory environments, require technical personnel, are time-consuming and not user-friendly, limiting their use in clinical practice. There is a need for more clinical validation studies to explore the full potential of the technology, especially in NB [15]
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