An accelerometry and gyroscopy-based system for detecting swallowing and coughing events

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Monitoring
• Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• Spontaneous swallowing frequencies (SSF) and coughing frequencies (CF) are crucial indicators of swallowing function, dysphagia, and pneumonia risk.
• Current methods for measuring SSF and CF, like electromyography and acoustic sensors, are often complex and difficult to implement clinically.
• There is a significant need for a simple, flexible, and robust system to measure these physiological parameters.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-complexity, flexible system for measuring spontaneous swallowing and coughing frequencies.
• To create a model capable of accurately identifying swallowing and coughing actions while distinguishing them from other movements.
• To assess the potential clinical applicability of this system in hospital settings and home care.

Main Methods:

• Recruited forty healthy volunteers for the study.
• Equipped participants with two medical-grade Movesense MD sensors measuring tri-axial accelerometry and gyroscopic movements, placed on the cricoid cartilage and epigastric region.
• Instructed participants to perform various actions, including swallowing and coughing, and processed recorded signals to develop an identification algorithm.

Main Results:

• The developed model achieved 70% sensitivity and 66.7% precision for detecting swallowing.
• The model demonstrated 100% sensitivity and 80% precision for detecting coughing.
• The system showed acceptable sensitivity and precision for detecting swallowing and coughing movements using two sensors.

Conclusions:

• SSF, CF, and their temporal relationships can serve as valuable predictive tools for diagnosis and therapeutic guidance.
• The developed sensor-based model is simple, robust, and promising for widespread clinical research and application.
• This technology has potential applications in predictive models for patient management, such as weaning from ventilatory support and early pneumonia detection.