Vital Physiological Parameters Research Articles

Implementation of an Intelligent Neonatal Monitoring System Using Raspberry Pi

An incubator is a biomedical apparatus used to keep neonates if they are ill and in need of further investigations. This is also useful for observation and care of newborn babies who were premature or of low birth weight. There will be loss of lives of neonates if the incubator is not appropriately monitored and this may even lead to accidents. In view of these, it has been proposed to implement an Intelligent Monitoring System for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). For monitoring the premature infants continuously it requires sensors. It has been learnt that the temperature, breathing rate, body movements, loudness, or cry are some of the features to be monitored in incubator. Hence, in this paper, a wireless communication and body area network based system that constantly examine the vital physiological parameters of the baby kept in the NICU has been discussed. The analog signals from the sensors are processed using a Raspberry Pi. The system has been developed with Raspberry Pi B+ module as the controller. Sensors are used to monitor the physiological parameters and Pi camera is used to detect the baby movements. Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) module is incorporated in the proposed system to transmit the parameters via a short message service (SMS). Hence, this system offers a suitable method for parents and nurses to monitor premature infants.

Biodegradable Molybdenum (Mo) and Tungsten (W) Devices: One Step Closer towards Fully-Transient Biomedical Implants

Close monitoring of vital physiological parameters is often key in following the evolution of certain medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, infections, post-operative status or post-traumatic injury). The allocation of trained medical staff and specialized equipment is, therefore, necessary and often translates into a clinical and economic burden on modern healthcare systems. As a growing field, transient electronics may establish fully bioresorbable medical devices capable of remote real-time monitoring of therapeutically relevant parameters. These devices could alert remote medical personnel in case of any anomaly and fully disintegrate in the body without a trace. Unfortunately, the need for a multitude of biodegradable electronic components (power supplies, wires, circuitry) in addition to the electrochemical biosensing interface has halted the arrival of fully bioresorbable electronically active medical devices. In recent years molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) have drawn increasing attention as promising candidates for the fabrication of both energy-powered active (e.g., transistors and integrated circuits) and passive (e.g., resistors and capacitors) biodegradable electronic components. In this review, we discuss the latest Mo and W-based dissolvable devices for potential biomedical applications and how these soluble metals could pave the way towards next-generation fully transient implantable electronic systems.

IoT-based real-time patients vital physiological parameters monitoring system using smart wearable sensors.

Health care is one of the least funded sectors in Bangladesh and many other similar developing countries. People living in rural and remote areas do not have access to proper health care, and when they do, it is too expensive. This research aimed to develop a real-time health monitoring system that is cheap, easy to use, and accessible by doctors and patients. The system consists of several Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors connected to an Arduino microprocessor, which thus measures the vital body signs of the patients. The measured readings are then transmitted to an Android application on a smartphone via a Bluetooth module. The sensors are connected to analog inputs. These sensors measure analog data, which is amplified by the microprocessor after being sorted. Doctors can also carry out the diagnosis of ailments using the data collected remotely from the patient. An Android-based mobile application that interfaces with a web-based application is implemented for efficient patients-doctors dual real-time communication. The Android application, which is connected to a MySQL database, updates the said database, which updates and displays the readings on a website accessible by both doctors and patients. Initially, the health monitor was tested using an Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) monitor and a single user. Once initial simulations were successful, the proposed system was tested on five different real-human test subjects. The testing of the wireless health monitor produced successful results that measured patient vitals with a high level of accuracy. The proposed IoT-based system monitors vital signs such as the patient’s body temperature, heart rate, ECG, SpO2 levels, blood pressure, and glucose levels. This system also includes a medical treatment plan by the doctors. The proposed system is novel as it integrates the IoT-based patient monitoring system with telemedicine. This proposed system has different sensors for real-time measuring the vital signs of the human body. A mobile and web application have also been integrated with this system for real-time remote patient monitoring and treatment plan. There are now systems available that only offer a telemedicine facility, where patients and doctors can have discussions, but do not have an IoT-based patient vital sign monitoring system integrated with telemedicine. The proposed system in this paper has the facility of IoT-based patient vital signs monitoring integrated with telemedicine, which makes this research work novel. The proposed system will increase the life expectancy of people throughout the world.

A Micro-Level Analysis of Physiological Responses to COVID-19: Continuous Monitoring of Pregnant Women in California.

Continuous monitoring of perinatal women in a descriptive case study allowed us the opportunity to examine the time during which the COVID-19 infection led to physiological changes in two low-income pregnant women. An important component of this study was the use of a wearable sensor device, the Oura ring, to monitor and record vital physiological parameters during sleep. Two women in their second and third trimesters, respectively, were selected based on a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Both women were tested using the polymerase chain reaction method to confirm the presence of the virus during which time we were able to collect these physiological data. In both cases, we observed 3–6 days of peak physiological changes in resting heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and respiratory rate (RR), as well as sleep surrounding the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. The pregnant woman in her third trimester showed a significant increase in resting HR (p = 0.006) and RR (p = 0.048), and a significant decrease in HRV (p = 0.027) and deep sleep duration (p = 0.029). She reported experiencing moderate COVID-19 symptoms and did not require hospitalization. At 38 weeks of gestation, she had a normal delivery and gave birth to a healthy infant. The participant in her second trimester showed similar physiological changes during the 3-day peak period. Importantly, these changes appeared to return to the pre-peak levels. Common symptoms reported by both cases included loss of smell and nasal congestion, with one losing her sense of taste. Results suggest the potential to use the changes in cardiorespiratory responses and sleep for real-time monitoring of health and well-being during pregnancy.

A Comparison between ketamine-xylazine and ketamine-midazolam or all of them to induce balance anesthesia in rabbits

The objective of this projectwas to study the induction of smooth anesthesia characterized by good induction (hypnosis), analgesia and good recovery with mild side effects caused by drugs. The effect of using Ketamine with both xylazine and midazolam KXM was investigated in adult rabbitsand compared with the positive control group that was administered with ketamine alone K at 40 mg/kg i.m, and with ketamine - xylazine group KX at 40 and 4 mg/kg i.m respectively, and with ketamine - midazolam group KM also at 40 and 4 mg/kg i.m respectively. Administration of xylazine and midazolam each one alone at 4 and 2 mg/kg I.M induced analgesia in a dose-dependent manner through a significant elevation of the electrical voltage after injection when compared with its value before injection. A minimum doses of a mixture KXM at 20,2 and 2 mg/kg i.m respectively, induced good hypnosis with rapid induction and long duration with recovery periods without significant variations in vital physiological parameters (respiratory rate, heart rate, and rectal temperature) and some biochemical parameters (GPT and GOT and glucose level) comparing with groups K, KX and KM. The outcomes of this work were revealed to the induction of proficient general anesthesia that was described by effective hypnosis with analgesic efficacy throughout the administration a minimum doses of ketamine/xylazine/midazolam combination in rabbits.

Internet of Things- (IoT-) Based Real-Time Vital Physiological Parameter Monitoring System for Remote Asthma Patients

In this paper, the design and implementation of an asthma patient monitoring system are presented. It can be categorized as an IoT-based device which can monitor heart rate, room temperature, humidity, air quality, nostril temperature, and oxygen saturation (SpO2) using an ESP8266 microcontroller and different sensors. All data will be sent to Firebase via Wi-Fi and then to patients and doctors via mobile applications and websites, respectively. Doctors can access this data via a website and instruct patients based on their specific needs. An ESP8266 microcontroller, a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, a MAX30100 pulse and SpO2 sensor, a MQ-135 air quality sensor, and an LM-35 temperature sensor have been used for the proposed system in this research. This system uses an efficient way to store all the data and information about the patient. It also carries their various test reports. The data is preserved in a proper way, which will help the patient or doctor retrieve any information in a smooth and swift manner. The software part of the system is divided into two parts. One of them is a mobile application that was designed by the Android Studio. The second one is the website, and it is also divided into two parts. HTML (hypertext markup language), CSS (cascading style sheets), and JavaScripts are designed for the front end of the website, and PHP (hypertext preprocessor) is used for the backend of the website. The device is tested on seven different real human test subjects, and the accuracy of that device is state of the art. It can measure the heart rate of a person along with their oxygen saturation with accuracy. Also, this device calculates the humidity properly as it changes the moment wet towels are put near the sensors and far from the sensors. It also shows the proper air quality as it has been tested with smoke to measure the extreme difference in the air quality. This system also has video calling and prescription features. Using this system, patients can consult with the doctor and get a prescription. Using this system, the vital physiological parameters of the remote patients can be measured and monitored. Any hospital or diagnostic center can be more efficient and organized by using a system. And patients are also freed from the hustle as they do not need to go and visit the doctor over and over again. The system is designed in such a way that it can look after the particular needs of a typical hospital or a diagnostic center and is able to provide easy and efficient storage of information related to patients.

Proposed Design and Assessment Methodology of a Wearable Device for Prevention and Performance Evaluation of Athletes

The paper presents the design approach of a low power stretchable wearable epidermal electronic device as part of an advanced athlete performance management framework to perform multi-parametric, multi-modal measurements of vital physiological parameters through the skin and via sweat analysis. It can be used to seamlessly monitor athletes, to prevent serious health complications and injuries during training, sudden death and complications related to overtraining. The proposed framework allows real-time physiological monitoring, tracking, prediction and quantification of athletic performance and estimation of recovery time after an injury, an illness or the overtraining syndrome. It is based on low-cost and clean room-based fabrication techniques and interconnects and readout electronics based on commercially available off-the-shelf components and application-specific integrated circuits. A data analytics platform incorporates real-time monitoring to identify the susceptibility to sudden death, health complications or injury, for the athlete, executing a personalized prediction model

A Degradable-Renewable Ionic Skin Based on Edible Glutinous Rice Gel.

Traditional wearable devices are commonly nonrecyclable and nondegradable, resulting in energy waste and environmental pollution. Here, a household degradable and renewable ionic skin based on edible glutinous rice gel is developed for a strain, temperature and salivary enzyme activity sensor. This gel depends on intermolecular and intramolecular H-bonds among amylopectin and amylose, and this presents excellent skin-like properties, including stretchability, self-healing property, and adhesion to various substrates. The glutinous rice gel-based skin sensor can be used to monitor vital signs and physiological parameters such as body temperature and heart rate. The sensor also achieves specific speech recognition and detects temperature and body micromovements, which provides the potential to reconstruct language or sensory/motor functions. More importantly, because of the excellent biocompatibility and degradability, the sensor can directly detect the activity of human salivary amylase, which is useful for diagnosing pancreas-, kidney-, and spleen-related diseases in the elderly. Finally, the raw material of ionic skin that originates from traditional grains is degradable and renewable as well as it can be used to prepare household wearable devices. Hence, this work not only extends the application of wearable electronics in daily life but also facilitates health monitoring in the elderly and improves their quality of life.

Multifunctional Graphene Sensor Ensemble as a Smart Biomonitoring Fashion Accessory.

Biomonitoring wearable sensors based on two-dimensional nanomaterials have recently elicited keen research interest and potential for a new range of flexible nanoelectronic devices. Practical nanomaterial-based devices suited for real-world service, which exhibit first-rate performance while being an attractive accessory, are still distant. We report a multifunctional flexible wearable sensor fabricated using an ultrathin percolative layer of graphene nanosheets on laser-patterned gold circular interdigitated electrodes for monitoring vital human physiological parameters. This graphene on laser-patterned electrode (GLE) sensor displays an excellent strain resolution of 245 με (0.024%) and a record high gauge factor of 6.3 × 107, with exceptional stability and repeatability in its operating range. The sensor was tested for human physiological monitoring like measurement of heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature, and hydration level, which are vital health parameters, especially considering the current pandemic scenario. The sensor also served in applications such as a pedometer, limb movement tracker, and control switch for human interaction. The innovative laser-etch process used to pattern gold thin-film electrodes, with the multifunctional incognizable graphene layer, provides a technique for integrating multiple sensors in a wearable band. The reported work marks a giant leap from the conventional banal devices to a highly marketable multifunctional sensor array as a biomonitoring fashion accessory.

Quantitation of cerebral oxygen tension using phasor analysis and phosphorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (PLIM).

Time-domain measurements for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and phosphorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (PLIM) are conventionally computed by nonlinear curve fitting techniques to model the time-resolved profiles as mono- or multi-exponential decays. However, these techniques are computationally intensive and prone to fitting errors. The phasor or "polar plot" analysis method has recently gained attention as a simple method to characterize fluorescence lifetime. Here, we adapted the phasor analysis method for absolute quantitation of phosphorescence lifetimes of oxygen-sensitive phosphors and used the phasor-derived lifetime values to quantify oxygen partial pressure (pO2) in cortical microvessels of awake mice. Our results, both experimental and simulated, demonstrate that oxygen measurements obtained from computationally simpler phasor analysis agree well with traditional curve fitting calculations. To our knowledge, the current study constitutes the first application of the technique for characterizing microsecond-length, time-domain phosphorescence measurements and absolute, in vivo quantitation of a vital physiological parameter. The method shows promise for monitoring cerebral metabolism and pathological changes in preclinical rodent models.

Design and Implementation of Routing Algorithm to Enhance Network Lifetime in WBAN

Today’s era is the era of smart and remote applications exploiting advancement in sensors, cloud, Internet of things etc. Major application is in healthcare monitoring and support using wireless body area network (WBAN) in which sensor nodes sense vital physiological parameters and send to server through sink i.e. smart phone nowadays for seamless monitoring. The most significant issue in such applications is energy efficiency which leads to enhanced network life time that ensures uninterrupted seamless services. From source to sink data transmission may occur considering three different scenarios: source to sink single hop direct data transmission irrespective of in-between node distance, source to sink multi hop data transmission in which transmission range of source node is fixed at a threshold to find next forwarder node and transmission range of source node is incremented by affixed value until data gets transmitted to sink. In this work WBAN having different network configurations based on fixed or random positions of nodes have been simulated. Different scenarios with fixed and varying number of nodes are framed and simulated using MATLAB 2020a for performance evaluation of proposed algorithm in terms of energy consumption, network lifetime, path loss etc. due to data transmission from source to sink. Experimental results show that incremental approach is better than direct one in terms of energy consumption, path loss and network lifetime. While selecting transmission range of a source node, it is considered to keep Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) lower to reduce impact on human tissue.

Estimation of the Respiratory Rate from Localised ECG at Different Auscultation Sites.

The respiratory rate (RR) is a vital physiological parameter in prediagnosis and daily monitoring. It can be obtained indirectly from Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals using ECG-derived respiration (EDR) techniques. As part of the study in designing an early cardiac screening system, this work aimed to study whether the accuracy of ECG derived RR depends on the auscultation sites. Experiments were conducted on 12 healthy subjects to obtain simultaneous ECG (at auscultation sites and Lead I as reference) and respiration signals from a microphone close to the nostril. Four EDR algorithms were tested on the data to estimate RR in both the time and frequency domain. Results reveal that: (1) The location of the ECG electrodes between auscultation sites does not impact the estimation of RR, (2) baseline wander and amplitude modulation algorithms outperformed the frequency modulation and band-pass filter algorithms, (3) using frequency domain features to estimate RR can provide more accurate RR except when using the band-pass filter algorithm. These results pave the way for ECG-based RR estimation in miniaturised integrated cardiac screening device.

The Effect of Kangaroo Mother Care Intervention on the Newborns Health Outcome Delivers at Sulaymaniyah Maternity Teaching Hospital

Background and Objectives: Kangaroo mother care is an intervention for all newborns but especially for premature and low birth weight infants. The method involves babies being carried, usually by the mother, with skin-to-skin contact. It is the most achievable way for decreasing neonatal morbidity and mortality and is practical, inexpensive especially for developing countries. This study intended to assess the effect of kangaroo mother care on the newborns’ health outcome at Sulaymaniyah Maternity Teaching Hospital in Sulaymani-yah, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Methods: A quasi-experimental, pre-post intervention study was conducted in the Neona-tal Intensive Care Unit and Baby Friend Unit of the hospital. One hundred newborn-mother pairs participated in the Kangaroo mother care procedure. The newborns were physiologically monitored before, in the middle and after the procedure. Result: The highest mean of newborn temperature was 37 ̊C after Kangaroo mother care in the visit three and the lowest mean temperature was 36.1 ̊C before Kangaroo mother care. There were statistically significant differences between the before, middle and after-procedure measurements in temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate (p-value <0.05) on all three visits, while there was no significant difference between the means of the oxy-gen saturation at all three visits (p-value was more than the standard alpha 0.05 F-test=0.961). There was a highly significant association between oxygen saturation and newborn birth weight and gestational age. Individual vital signs abnormalities were often corrected during the Kangaroo mother care sessions. Newborns involved in the procedure showed steady and statistically significant improvement in vital physiological parameters during three sessions on all three days. Conclusion: Majority of babies who received Kangaroo mother care showed significant im-provement in vital physiological parameters on all three days without using special equip-ment showing that this strategy can offer improved care to newborn infants. These find-ings support wider implementation of this strategy.

An Approach of Neural Network For Electrocardiogram Classification

ECG is basically the graphical representation of the electrical activity of cardiac muscles duringcontraction and release stages. It helps in determination of the cardiac arrhythmias in a well manner. Due to thisearly detection of arrhythmias can be done properly. In other words we can say that the bio-potentials generated bythe cardiac muscles results in an electrical signal called Electro-cardiogram (ECG). It acts as a vital physiologicalparameter, which is being used exclusively to know the state of the cardiac patients. Feature extraction of ECG playsa vital role in the manual as well as automatic analysis of ECG. In this paper the study of the concept of patternrecognition of ECG is done. It refers to the classification of data patterns and characterizing them into classes ofpredefined set. The analysis ECG signal falls under the application of pattern recognition. The ECG signal generatedwaveform gives almost all information about activity of the heart. The ECG signal feature extraction parameters suchas spectral entropy, Poincare plot and Lyapunov exponent are used for study in this paper .This paper also includesartificial neural network as a classifier for identifying the abnormalities of heart disease.

Development of a Reflectance Photo Plethysmograph for the Estimation of Pulse Transit Time

Pulse transit time is considered as a vital physiological parameter for assessing several cardiac disorders. It was proven that pulse transit time provides accurate diagnosis in estimation of blood pressure. In this paper, we demonstrate an instrumented hardware for the development of reflectance photoplethysmograph. The designed system uses two reflectance sensors at two different arterial locations for the estimation of pulse transit Time. Developed hardware is used for the calculation or estimation of the pulse transit time from the two photoplethysmograph signals obtained, one from the wrist and the other from the finger respectively, estimated pulse transit time is compared against the gold standard equipment, the results indicate the estimated values are within the limits of medical diagnostic values.

Development of a Reflectance Photo Plethysmograph for the Estimation of Pulse Transit Time

Pulse transit time is considered as a vital physiological parameter for assessing several cardiac disorders. It was proven that pulse transit time provides accurate diagnosis in estimation of blood pressure. In this paper, we demonstrate an instrumented hardware for the development of reflectance photoplethysmograph. The designed system uses two reflectance sensors at two different arterial locations for the estimation of pulse transit Time. Developed hardware is used for the calculation or estimation of the pulse transit time from the two photoplethysmograph signals obtained, one from the wrist and the other from the finger respectively, estimated pulse transit time is compared against the gold standard equipment, the results indicate the estimated values are within the limits of medical diagnostic values.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Wearable and Flexible Integrated Sensors for Screening, Diagnostics, and Treatment

The papers in this special issue present a selection of high quality research papers on wearable and flexible integrated sensors for screening, diagnostics, and treatment. Emerging flexible and wearable physical sensing devices create huge potential for many vital healthcare and biomedical applications including artificial electronic skins, physiological monitoring and assessment systems, therapeutic and drug delivery platforms, etc. Monitoring of vital physiological parameters in hospital and/or home environments has been of tremendous interests to healthcare practitioners for a long time. Robust and reliable sensors with excellent flexibility and stretchability are essential in the development of pervasive health monitoring systems with the capability of continuously tracking physiological signals of human body without conspicuous discomfort and invasiveness.

Skin-Friendly Electronics for Acquiring Human Physiological Signatures.

Epidermal sensing devices offer great potential for real-time health and fitness monitoring via continuous characterization of the skin for vital morphological, physiological, and metabolic parameters. However, peeling them off can be difficult and sometimes painful especially when these skin-mounted devices are applied on sensitive or wounded regions of skin due to their strong adhesion. A set of biocompatible and water-decomposable "skin-friendly" epidermal electronic devices fabricated on flexible, stretchable, and degradable protein-based substrates are reported. Strong adhesion and easy detachment are achieved concurrently through an environmentally benign, plasticized protein platform offering engineered mechanical properties and water-triggered, on-demand decomposition lifetime (transiency). Human experiments show that multidimensional physiological signals can be measured using these innovative epidermal devices consisting of electro- and biochemical sensing modules and analyzed for important physiological signatures using an artificial neural network. The advances provide unique, versatile capabilities and broader applications for user- and environmentally friendly epidermal devices.

Femone Health Monitoring System

As per the medical reports, each year 4 million newborns die within 28 days of birth and more suffer from disabilities, diseases, infections, and injuries. According to 2017 death rate, about 8,02,000 neonatal deaths are reported in India. The inability to detect any discomforts/criticalness that the babies can go through in the initial stages of life can lead to permanent disabilities/disorders and even death. The absolutely imperative approach to shrunken the mortality rate is to detect neonatal criticalness and give timely attention. Enabling an environment for newborn safety depends on the availability of adequate health-care facilities, equipment’s, medicines and emergency care when needed. Femone Health Monitoring System is developed with an aim to detect the difficulties faced by the babies and make it available to the user as well as doctors for easy diagnosis and treatment. The proposed technique is a wireless noninvasive system which monitors the vital physiological parameters of neonates including heart rate, oxygen level, body temperature, and wetness. Heart rate, oxygen level and body temperature are measured using the principle of photoplethysmography (PPG). The measured parameters are sent to an MQTT server and are published through the Femone app in real-time. The system also records the neonatal conditions in a day to day manner for future reference. A number of clinical trials were conducted in order to check the performance and for validation.

Mechanical chest compressions for cardiac arrest in the cath-lab: when is it enough and who should go to extracorporeal cardio pulmonary resuscitation?

BackgroundTreating patients in cardiac arrest (CA) with mechanical chest compressions (MCC) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is now routine in many coronary catheterization laboratories (cath-lab) and more aggressive treatment modalities, including extracorporeal CPR are becoming more common. The cath-lab setting enables monitoring of vital physiological parameters and other clinical factors that can potentially guide the resuscitation effort. This retrospective analysis attempts to identify such factors associated with ROSC and survival.MethodsIn thirty-five patients of which background data, drugs used during the resuscitation and the intervention, PCI result, post ROSC-treatment and physiologic data collected during CPR were compared for prediction of ROSC and survival.ResultsEighteen (51%) patients obtained ROSC and 9 (26%) patients survived with good neurological outcome. There was no difference between groups in regards of background data. Patients arriving in the cath-lab with ongoing resuscitation efforts had lower ROSC rate (22% vs 53%; p = 0.086) and no survivors (0% vs 50%, p = 0.001). CPR time also differentiated resuscitation outcomes (ROSC: 18 min vs No ROSC: 50 min; p = 0.007 and Survivors: 10 min vs No Survivors: 45 min; p = 0.001). Higher arterial diastolic blood pressure was associated with ROSC: 30 mmHg vs No ROSC: 19 mmHg; p = 0.012).ConclusionAortic diastolic pressure during CPR is the most predictive physiological parameter of resuscitation success. Ongoing CPR upon arrival at the cath-lab and continued MCC beyond 10–20 min in the cath-lab were both predictive of poor outcomes. These factors can potentially guide decisions regarding escalation and termination of resuscitation efforts.