A Novel Point-of-Care Smartphone Based System for Monitoring the Cardiac and Respiratory Systems

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiology
• Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• Mobile health technology is expanding healthcare delivery.
• Cardio-respiratory monitoring presents significant challenges in mobile healthcare.
• Existing systems often require specialized hardware.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a smartphone-based 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) system named "cvrPhone".
• To assess the system's capability in detecting myocardial ischemia and estimating respiratory parameters (respiration rate and tidal volume) from ECG signals alone.
• To validate the system's performance in detecting apnea.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 12-lead smartphone-based ECG acquisition system (cvrPhone).
• Utilized ECG signal analysis to calculate ischemic indices and estimate respiration rate (RR) and tidal volume (TV).
• Conducted in-vivo swine studies involving induced coronary artery occlusion and simulated apnea via mechanical ventilator pauses.

Main Results:

• Ischemic indices significantly increased (p < 0.05) within 2 minutes of coronary artery occlusion.
• Significant increases in ischemic index preceded ventricular tachycardia episodes by 1-4 minutes.
• Apnea was detected within 7.9 ± 1.1 seconds for RR and 5.5 ± 2.2 seconds for TV, with estimated values of 0 breaths/min and <100 ml, respectively.

Conclusions:

• The cvrPhone system demonstrates efficacy in detecting myocardial ischemia using ECG signals.
• The system accurately estimates respiratory rate and tidal volume, enabling apnea detection.
• This mobile platform offers a promising, readily available solution for cardio-respiratory monitoring.