A Wearable Technology Revisited for Cardio-Respiratory Functional Exploration

The objective of the present study is to extract new information from complex signals generated by Respiratory Inductive Plethysmography (RIP). This indirect cardio-respiratory (CR) measure is a well-known wearable solution. The authors applied time-scale analysis to estimate cardiac activity from thoracic volume variations, witnesses of CR interactions. Calibrated RIP signals gathered from 4 healthy volunteers in resting conditions are processed by Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition to extract cardiac volume signals and estimate stroke volumes. Averaged values of these stroke volumes (SVRIP) are compared with averaged values of stroke volumes determined simultaneously by electrical impedance cardiography (SVICG). There is a satisfactory correlation between SVRIP and SVICG (r=0.76, p<0.001) and the limits of agreement between the 2 types of measurements (±23%) satisfies the required criterion (±30%). The observed under-estimation (-58%) is argued. This validates the use of RIP for following stroke volume variations and suggests that one simple transducer can provide a quantitative exploration of both ventilatory and cardiac volumes.