Agreement between Vital Signs Measured Using Mat-Type Noncontact Sensors and Those from Conventional Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiology
• Medical Monitoring

Background:

• Vital signs are critical for patient assessment and early detection of deterioration.
• Noncontact sensor technology aims to reduce patient burden during vital sign measurement.
• Cardiovascular disease patients require continuous and accurate monitoring of physiological parameters.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of a mat-type noncontact sensor for measuring respiratory and pulse rates.
• To compare the sensor's performance against conventional methods in hospitalized cardiovascular patients.
• To determine the clinical acceptability and potential for long-term monitoring using this noncontact sensor.

Main Methods:

• A mat-type noncontact sensor was employed to measure respiratory and pulse rates in 48 hospitalized patients with cardiovascular diseases.
• Data acquisition was performed during periods of bed rest.
• Bland-Altman analysis was utilized to assess agreement and identify proportional bias between the noncontact sensor and conventional monitoring devices (blood pressure devices, 24-h Holter ECG).

Main Results:

• For respiratory rate, the mean difference was 1.9 breaths/min with significant proportional bias (r = 0.63, p < 0.05).
• For pulse rate, mean differences were -2.0 beats/min (vs. BP) and 0.01 beats/min (vs. ECG), with significant proportional bias in both comparisons (r = 0.49, p < 0.05; r = 0.52, p < 0.05).
• Despite proportional bias, the results were deemed clinically acceptable as they did not lead to misclassification of abnormal values.

Conclusions:

• The mat-type noncontact sensor demonstrates sufficient accuracy to be considered an alternative to conventional vital sign assessment methods.
• This technology holds promise for enabling long-term, unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs in clinical settings, particularly for patients with cardiovascular conditions.