Evaluation of a wearable device to determine cardiorespiratory parameters from surface diaphragm electromyography

Abstract

Using wearable devices in clinical routines could reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of assessment in patients with chronic respiratory diseases. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the capability of a Shimmer3 wearable device device to extract reliable cardiorespiratory parameters from surface diaphragm electromyography (EMGdi). Twenty healthy volunteers underwent an incremental load respiratory test whilst EMGdi was recorded with a Shimmer3 wearable device (EMGdiW). Simultaneously, a second EMGdi (EMGdiL), the inspiratory mouth pressure (Pmouth) and the lead-I electrocardiogram (ECG) were recorded via a standard wired laboratory acquisition system. Different cardiorespiratory parameters have been extracted from both EMGdiW and EMGdiL signals.: heart rate, respiratory rate, respiratory muscle activity and mean frequency of EMGdi signals. Alongside these, similar parameters were also extracted from reference signals (Pmouth and ECG). High correlations were found between the data extracted from the EMGdiW and the reference signal data: heart rate (R = 0.947), respiratory rate (R = 0.940), respiratory muscle activity (R = 0.877), and mean frequency (R = 0.895). Moreover, similar increments in EMGdiW and EMGdiL activity were observed when Pmouth was raised, enabling the study of respiratory muscle activation. In summary, the Shimmer3 device is a promising and cost-effective solution for ambulatory monitoring of respiratory muscle function in chronic respiratory diseases.