Category: Respiratory

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Respiratory Seniors Sleep

Built-in, contactless sensors monitor breathing

Caucasian woman sleeping in bed

Novelda’s building-integrated “XeThru” sensor modules detect human presence and monitor respiration.  Breath rate and depth are measured and tracked in real-time.   The use of radio waves, rather than infrared, ultrasound or light, allows the modules to ‘see through’ a variety of objects, including  building materials and blankets.

The sensors are intended for hidden, tamper proof, smart home automation.  They are tools for allowing seniors to age in place, as breathing abnormalities are observed with out a manual alarm trigger.  Sleep abnormalities can also be detected. The system can, of course, also be used for security,  and to control climate and lighting.

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Heart Respiratory Sensors

Sensor seatbelt detects fatigue

HARKEN is a sensor embedded  driver’s seatbelt and seat cover that monitors cardiac and respiratory rhythms.  Its hidden signal processing unit analyzes the data in real time.  The prototype is being developed at Spain’s  Biomechanics Institute in Valencia. When the sensor data indicates the person is falling asleep, an alarm will wake the driver.

 Closed track testing has been completed.  The research team is making plans to test the system in real world traffic conditions.

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Children Pregnancy Respiratory

Phone pulse oximeter detects preeclampsia, pneumonia

Christian Petersen and colleagues at the University of British Columbia have developed a low cost smartphone pulse oximeter.  Its light sensor attaches to a user’s fingertip to measure blood oxygen levels. Software analyzes and simply displays the data on a phone, tablet or computer.

The phone oximeter can measure heart and respiration rates, and be used in conjunction with other monitoring equipment, including blood pressure cuffs.

As it has been designed primarily to measure blood oxygen levels, researchers claim that the device and software could detect early signs of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women and diagnose pneumonia in young children.

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AI Heart Pregnancy Respiratory

Human body simulation for health research

The Virtual Physiological Human project is a computer simulated replica of the human body that is being created to test drugs and treatments.  It will allow physicians to model the mechanical, physical and biochemical functions of the body as a single complex system rather than as a collection of organs.  The goal is to offer personalized treatment of disease.

The University of Sheffield is significantly contributing to the project:

Dr Paul Morris is creating personalized “virtual arteries” using images of a patient’s heart, which can accurately predict how effective an operation, such as the introduction of a stent, might be.

Professor Jim Wild believes that computer models of a patient’s lungs could allow doctors to detect signs of lung diseases such as emphysema much earlier.

Dr Xinshan Li  is researching the impact of pregnancy on women’s pelvic floor muscles.   “It’s positioned as a predictive tool,” she said. “The idea is to get the geometry of your pelvic floor either during pregnancy or before you become pregnant, and then run simulations of the birth process and see how likely it is that the muscle will be damaged. If the risk is high, then there are certain interventions we can do during the birth process to mitigate the risk.”

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Conference Respiratory

Stem cells converted to functional lung cells; could impact modeling, drug screening, transplantation

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.2754.html

Columbia professor Hans-Willem Snoeck and colleagues have transformed human stem cells into functional lung and airway cells.  This has significant potential for modeling lung disease, screening drugs, studying human lung development, and, ultimately, generating lung tissue for transplantation.

The research builds on Dr. Snoeck’s 2011 discovery of a set of chemical factors that can turn human embryonic stem  cells or human induced pluripotent stem cells into anterior foregut endoderm—precursors of lung and airway cells. Human iPS cells closely resemble human ES cells but are generated from skin cells, by coaxing them into taking a developmental step backwards. Human iPS cells can then be stimulated to differentiate into specialized cells—offering researchers an alternative to human ES cells.

The team have found new factors that can complete the transformation of human ES or iPS cells into functional lung epithelial cells. The resultant cells were found to express markers of at least six types of lung and airway epithelial cells, particularly markers of type 2 alveolar epithelial cells. Type 2 cells are important because they produce surfactant, a substance critical to maintain the lung alveoli, where gas exchange takes place; they also participate in repair of the lung after injury and damage.

The findings have implications for the study of several lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, in which type 2 alveolar epithelial cells are thought to play a central role.

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Babies Monitoring Respiratory Sensors Sleep Wearables

Crowdfunded “smart sock” monitors baby’s breathing

http://www.owletcare.com

Owlet Baby Monitors has created a baby “smart sock” with sensors that transmit a child’s heart rate, oxygen levels, skin temperature, sleep quality, and sleep position (rollover alerts) to a parent’s smartphone.  The company has launched a crowdfunding campaign as it goes through the FDA approval process.

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Data Heart Machine Learning Monitoring Respiratory

Machine learning in the ICU

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515461/machine-learning-and-risk-prediction-in-the-icu/

Etiometry is building a clinical-decision support system to interpret large volumes of real-time patient data and guide diagnosis and treatment.  It integrates and analyzes information from heart monitors, ventilators, and pressure sensors and plugs the data into predictive models that have been built on prior patient outcomes.

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Monitoring Respiratory

Fiber optic device for lung disease detection

http://www.cir.ed.ac.uk/news/multidisciplinary-optical-imaging-team-awarded-£115m

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Bath have developed a fiber-optic device to detect potentially fatal lung conditions in intensive care patients.   Its sensors will also continuously monitor blood in critically ill adults and babies with out the need for blood sampling.

The microscopic probe will detect and monitor up to 20 signs of disease in people on breathing support.  Infections, inflammation and scarring will be picked up by the probe, which is designed to be passed into the lungs and blood vessels.

Researchers hope that the probe will also help in the diagnosis of acute urinary, gastrointestinal and reproductive tract problems.