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Updated: Mar 7, 2026
Electrophysiology on Isolated Brainstem-spinal Cord Preparations from Newborn Rodents Allows Neural Respiratory Network Output Recording
Published on: November 19, 2015
Validation of a quantitative method to measure neural respiratory drive in children during sleep
Sandra Ya-Chu Chuang1, Arthur Teng2, Jane Elizabeth Butler3
1Respiratory Department, Sydney Children's Hospital, High Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia; School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Level 8, The Bright Alliance Building, Cnr of Avoca & High Streets, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
Aims:
Quantitatively measure and validate analysis of neural respiratory drive (NRD) using a commercial polysomnography system in children during sleep.
Method:
Surface electromyogram of the diaphragm (sEMGdi) recorded from primary snoring children were analysed. A subset was re-analysed to assess intra- and inter-investigator reproducibility. Effects of different band pass filter settings (20-100Hz vs 10-1000Hz) on sEMGdi amplitude were evaluated.
Results:
Mean sEMGdi from 45 children aged 4.38 years (median; IQR 3.00-7.96) was 5.05μV (SD 2.73). The sEMGdi had a high intra-subject intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.88. sEMGdi analysis was reproducible with high ICC between occasions (0.99; 95% CI 0.98-0.99) and between investigators (0.98; 95% CI 0.97-0.99). There was also a high ICC (0.99, 95% CI 0.96-1.00) between the sEMGdi measured using different band-pass filter settings. Age and BMI were negative predictors of sEMGdi (p<0.0001 and p=0.0004 respectively).
Conclusion:
NRD in children during sleep as assessed by sEMGdi can be quantified in a reliable and reproducible fashion.
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