A Multi-Site, Multi-Wavelength PPG Platform for Continuous Non-Invasive Health Monitoring in Hospital Settings

This article presents a novel PPG acquisition platform capable of synchronous multi-wavelength signal acquisition from two measurement locations with up to 4 independent wavelengths from each in parallel. The platform is fully configurable and operates at 1ksps, accommodating a wide variety of transmitters and detectors to serve as both a research tool for experimentation and a clinical tool for disease monitoring. The sensing probes presented in this work acquire 4 PPG channels from the wrist and 4 PPG channels from the fingertip, with wavelengths such that surrogates for pulse wave velocity and haematocrit can be extracted. For conventional PPG sensing, we have achieved themean error of 4.08 +/- 3.72 bpm for heart-rate and a mean error of 1.54 +/- 1.04% for SpO(2) measurement, with the latter lying within the FDA limits for commercial pulse oximeters. We have further evaluated over 700 individual peak-to-peak time differences between wrist and fingertip signals, achieving a normalized weighted average PWV of 5.80 +/- 1.58 m/s, matching with values of PWV found for this age group in literature. Lastly, we introduced and computed a haematocrit ratio (Rhct) between the deep IR and deep red wavelength from the fingertip sensor, finding a significant difference between male and female values (median of 1.9 and 2.93 respectively) pointing to devices sensitivity to Hct.

Automated summary

This article introduces a novel PPG acquisition platform that can simultaneously acquire multi-wavelength signals from two measurement locations, with up to 4 independent wavelengths from each in parallel. The platform is configurable, operates at 1ksps, and can be used for both research and clinical purposes. The sensing probes presented in this work acquire 4 PPG channels from the wrist and 4 PPG channels from the fingertip, allowing for the extraction of surrogates for pulse wave velocity and haematocrit.