Multichannel Esophageal Heart Rate Monitoring of Preterm Infants

Simmen, Patrizia; Kreuzer, Samuel; Thomet, Manuel; Suter, Lilian; Jesacher, Barbara; Tran, Phuong-Anh; Haeberlin, Andreas; Schulzke, Sven; Jost, Kerstin; Niederhauser, Thomas (2020). Multichannel Esophageal Heart Rate Monitoring of Preterm Infants IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 68(6), pp. 1903-1912. IEEE 10.1109/TBME.2020.3030162

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Objective: Autonomic dysregulation in preterm infants requires continuous monitoring of vital signs such as heart rate over days to months. Unfortunately, common surface electrodes are prone to electrocardiography (ECG) signal artifacts and cause serious skin irritations during long-term use. In contrast, esophageal ECG is known to be very sensitive due to the proximity of electrodes and heart and insensitive to external influences. This study addresses if multichannel esophageal ECG qualifies for heart rate monitoring in preterm infants. Methods: We recorded esophageal leads with a multi-electrode gastric feeding tube in a clinical study with 13 neonates and compared the heartbeat detection performance with standard surface leads. A computationally simple and versatile ECG wave detection algorithm was used. Results: Multichannel esophageal ECG manifested heartbeat sensitivity and positive predictive value >98.5% and significant less false negative (FN) ECG waves as compared to surface ECG due to site-typical electrode motion artifacts. False positive bradycardia as indicated with >13 consecutive FN ECG waves was equally expectable in esophageal and surface channels. No adverse events were reported for the multi-electrode gastric feeding tube. Conclusion: Heart rate monitoring of preterm infants with multiple esophageal electrodes is considered as feasible and reliable. Less signal artifacts will improve the detection of bradycardia, which is crucial for immediate interventions, and reduce alarm fatigue. Significance: Due to the possibility to integrate the multichannel ECG into a gastric feeding tube and meanwhile omit harmful skin electrodes, the presented system has great potential to facilitate future intensive care of preterm infants.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Engineering and Computer Science > Institute for Human Centered Engineering (HUCE) BFH Centres and strategic thematic fields > BFH centre for Health technologies
Name:	Simmen, Patrizia; Kreuzer, Samuel; Thomet, Manuel; Suter, Lilian; Jesacher, Barbara; Tran, Phuong-Anh; Haeberlin, Andreas; Schulzke, Sven; Jost, Kerstin and Niederhauser, Thomas0000-0003-2633-0844
Subjects:	R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
ISSN:	0018-9294
Publisher:	IEEE
Language:	English
Submitter:	Thomas Niederhauser
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2021 12:09
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2021 06:52
Publisher DOI:	10.1109/TBME.2020.3030162
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.13966
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/13966