Direct and Indirect Tidal Volume estimation in Preterm Newborn

Premature birth is one of the major risk factors for infant mortality. This is caused by the incomplete development of the respiratory system. This failure can lead to a series of situations in which the newborn baby is faced with episodes of apnoea and bradycardia. In order to allow a correct approach and a correct estimation of the seriousness of the situation, it is essential to correctly monitor the respiratory parameters of the preterm newborns. Indeed, the occurrence of apneic episodes is anticipated by an oscillation in the respiratory signal. Timely intervention by hospital personnel could thus be ensured in order to improve the infant’s care. Such monitoring is usually performed with instrumentation that is invasive for the newborns and therefore leads to the development of new methodologies for monitoring these parameters. This study examines the hypothesis of assessing respiration by means of the electrocardiographic signal obtained through the use of electrode already placed on the patient’s chest. Of the respiratory signal, the tidal volume was analysed in particular. The aim of the analysis performed is to verify the correlation between the tidal volume of the respiratory signal measured through the inductive band and the tidal volume of the respiratory signal obtained through the electrocardiogram. For this purpose, the tidal volumes of the two signals mentioned above were calculated using three different methodologies. For each calculation methodology, comparisons were made between the respiratory signal detected by the electrocardiogram and the respiratory signal given by the inductive band measurement. This may be a step towards becoming revolutionary way of monitoring respiration for preterm infants.