Video based non-contact monitoring of respiratory rate and chest indrawing in children with pneumonia

Objective. Pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide due to infectious diseases. According to WHO guidelines, fast breathing and chest indrawing are the key indicators of pneumonia in children requiring antibiotic treatments. The aim of this study was to develop a video based novel method for simultaneous monitoring of respiratory rate and chest indrawing without upsetting babies. Approach. Respiratory signals, corresponding to periodic movements of chest-abdominal walls during breathing, were extracted by analyzing RGB (red, green, blue) components in video frames captured by a smartphone camera. Respiratory rate was then obtained by applying fast Fourier transform on the de-noised respiratory signal. Chest indrawing was detected by analysing relative phases of regional chest-abdominal wall mobility. The performance of the developed algorithm was evaluated on both healthy and pneumonia children. Main results. The proposed method ...
Source: Physiological Measurement - Category: Physiology Authors: Source Type: research