Your browser does not support JavaScript!
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com
1887

access icon openaccess Continuous non-contact vital sign monitoring in neonatal intensive care unit

Current technologies to allow continuous monitoring of vital signs in pre-term infants in the hospital require adhesive electrodes or sensors to be in direct contact with the patient. These can cause stress, pain, and also damage the fragile skin of the infants. It has been established previously that the colour and volume changes in superficial blood vessels during the cardiac cycle can be measured using a digital video camera and ambient light, making it possible to obtain estimates of heart rate or breathing rate. Most of the papers in the literature on non-contact vital sign monitoring report results on adult healthy human volunteers in controlled environments for short periods of time. The authors' current clinical study involves the continuous monitoring of pre-term infants, for at least four consecutive days each, in the high-dependency care area of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The authors have further developed their video-based, non-contact monitoring methods to obtain continuous estimates of heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation for infants nursed in incubators. In this Letter, it is shown that continuous estimates of these three parameters can be computed with an accuracy which is clinically useful. During stable sections with minimal infant motion, the mean absolute error between the camera-derived estimates of heart rate and the reference value derived from the ECG is similar to the mean absolute error between the ECG-derived value and the heart rate value from a pulse oximeter. Continuous non-contact vital sign monitoring in the NICU using ambient light is feasible, and the authors have shown that clinically important events such as a bradycardia accompanied by a major desaturation can be identified with their algorithms for processing the video signal.

Inspec keywords: biomedical equipment; patient monitoring; pneumodynamics; paediatrics; cardiology; biomedical optical imaging; video cameras; oxygen; estimation theory; feature extraction; oximetry; biochemistry; medical image processing; video recording; blood vessels; patient care

Other keywords: direct patient contact; infant skin damage; adhesive electrodes; adult healthy human volunteers; adhesive sensors; infant stress; superficial blood vessel colour change measurement; high-dependency care area; camera-derived estimates; clinical letter; continuous noncontact vital sign monitoring; bradycardia identification; continuous vital sign monitoring technologies; neonatal intensive care unit; digital video camera; time 4 day; NICU; infant nursing; continuous oxygen saturation estimation; video-based noncontact monitoring methods; major desaturation; incubators; video signal processing algorithms; O2; continuous pre-term infant monitoring; stable sections; infant pain; reference heart rate value; continuous heart rate estimation; pulse oximeter; ambient light; cardiac cycle; breathing rate estimation; superficial blood vessel volume change measurement; electrocardiogram; mean absolute error; hospital; minimal infant motion; ECG-derived value; continuous respiratory rate estimation

Subjects: Video recording; Other topics in statistics; Other topics in statistics; Optical, image and video signal processing; Optical and laser radiation (medical uses); Chemical variables measurement; Haemodynamics, pneumodynamics; Interactions with radiations at the biomolecular level; Patient care and treatment; Patient diagnostic methods and instrumentation; Optical and laser radiation (biomedical imaging/measurement); Computer vision and image processing techniques; Patient care and treatment; Biology and medical computing

References

    1. 1)
    2. 2)
    3. 3)
    4. 4)
      • 10. Godbehere, A., Matsukawa, A., Goldberg, K.: ‘Visual tracking of human visitors under variable-lighting conditions for a responsive audio art installation’. American Control Conf., 2012, pp. 43054312.
    5. 5)
      • 4. Klaessens, J.H.G.M., van den Born, M., van der Veen, A.J., et al: ‘Development of a baby friendly non-contact method for measuring vital signs: first results of clinical measurements in an open incubator at a neonatal intensive care unit’. Proc. of SPIE, 2014, vol. 8935, pp. 17.
    6. 6)
      • 2. Scalise, L., Bernacchia, N., Ercoli, I., Marchionni, P.: ‘Heart rate measurement in neonatal patients using a webcamera’. IEEE Int. Symp. on Medical Measurements and Applications Proc., 2012, pp. 14.
    7. 7)
    8. 8)
    9. 9)
    10. 10)
    11. 11)
    12. 12)
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/htl.2014.0077
Loading

Related content

content/journals/10.1049/htl.2014.0077
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address