Clinical Application of Monitoring Vital Signs in Dogs Through Ballistocardiography (BCG)

This study evaluated the application of the BCG Sense1 wearable device for monitoring the heart rate (HR) and the respiratory rate (RR) in dogs, comparing its performance to the gold standard ECG under awake and anesthetized conditions. Data were collected from twelve dogs, with six awake beagles and six anesthetized client-owned dogs. Bland-Altman analysis and linear regression revealed strong correlations between BCG and ECG under both awake and anesthetized conditions (HR: r = 0.97, R² = 0.94; RR: r = 0.78, R² = 0.61, and p < 0.001). While slight irregularities were noted in respiratory rate measurements in both groups, potentially affecting the concordance between methods, BCG maintained a significant correlation with ECG under anesthesia (HR: r = 0.96, R² = 0.92; RR: r = 0.85, R² = 0.72, and p < 0.01). The wearable BCG-Sense 1 sensor enables continuous monitoring over 24 h, while ECG serves as the gold standard reference. These findings prove that BCG can be a good alternative to ECG for the monitoring of vital signs in clinical, perioperative, intraoperative, and postoperative settings. The strong correlation between the BCG and ECG signals in awake and anesthetized states highlights the prospects of BCG technology as a revolutionary method in veterinary medicine. As a non-invasive and real-time monitoring system, the BCG Sense1 device strengthens clinical diagnosis and reduces physiological variations induced by stress.