Wearable Sleep and Respiratory Monitoring Device for Infants

Sleep apnea is one of the most common causes of neonatal deaths which mostly occur during their first year of existence. Current methodologies used in detecting respiratory disorders among infants are mostly bulky and require multiple devices attached to the patients. These apneic events are detected from polysomnography (PSG) recording based on the nasal-oral airflow amplitude and the blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) level. Infants are placed inside boxed ventilators where numerous sensors are attached to their body and the face (CPAP) during this procedure causing them a great deal of inconvenience and discomfort. As a result, this method becomes costly and requires caregivers to stay on duty in NICU for long hours. In addition, the detection of sleep apnea is carried out by manual review of the outputs of the sensors by an expert which adds an extra cost of treatment as well.

Thus, the need for affordable, low-power automatic detection system for predicting and classifying respiratory disorders is a necessity. Developing a compact, non-invasive biomedical system will pave the way for smart wearable biomedical devices designed for critical patients. The implementation of high accuracy automatic detection scheme will not only eliminate time-consuming data acquisition process examined by medical experts but also reduce the labor-intensive long hour workload for the caregivers on duty in NICUs.

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