Morphic Sensors for Respiratory Parameters Estimation: Validation against Overnight Polysomnography

Effective monitoring of respiratory disturbances during sleep requires a sensor capable of accurately capturing chest movements or airflow displacement. Gold-standard monitoring of sleep and breathing through polysomnography achieves this task through dedicated chest/abdomen bands, thermistors, and nasal flow sensors, and more detailed physiology, evaluations via a nasal mask, pneumotachograph, and airway pressure sensors. However, these measurement approaches can be invasive and time-consuming to perform and analyze. This work compares the performance of a non-invasive wearable stretchable morphic sensor, which does not require direct skin contact, embedded in a t-shirt worn by 32 volunteer participants (26 males, 6 females) with sleep-disordered breathing who performed a detailed, overnight in-laboratory sleep study. Direct comparison of computed respiratory parameters from morphic sensors versus traditional polysomnography had approximately 95% (95 & PLUSMN; 0.7) accuracy. These findings confirm that novel wearable morphic sensors provide a viable alternative to non-invasively and simultaneously capture respiratory rate and chest and abdominal motions.

Automated summary

Effective monitoring of respiratory disturbances during sleep requires a sensor capable of accurately capturing chest movements or airflow displacement. This study compares the performance of a non-invasive wearable stretchable morphic sensor with traditional polysomnography, and found that the morphic sensor had approximately 95% accuracy in computing respiratory parameters. These findings suggest that wearable morphic sensors provide a viable alternative for non-invasively capturing respiratory rate and chest and abdominal motions.