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Evaluation of Structured Light Plethysmography for lung function monitoring in pediatric respiratory disorders

Hmeidi, Hamzah

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Authors

Hamzah Hmeidi



Abstract

Current Lung function assessments in children can be clinically challenging and even inapplicable in preschool children, this is due to the test requirements of cooperation and understanding. Hence, there is a need for new techniques that can overcome these limitations. Structured Light Plethysmography (SLP) is a new non-invasive technique to measure tidal breathing by capturing the movement of the thoraco-abdominal wall. This technique requires minimal subject cooperation as it does not require the subject to perform any breathing manoeuvres but to sit still and breathe normally. The usefulness of SLP in adults has been shown in previous studies, specifically in detecting abnormal breathing patterns in adults diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). SLP is arguably a more suitable method for young children and infants. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to determine the reliability of SLP for lung function monitoring in paediatric population. The first part of this project aimed to investigate the use of SLP in assessing tidal breathing parameters in: (1) school-age children (7-16 years) with stable Asthma, (2) younger children (2-12 years) recovering from acute asthma/wheeze and (3) infants recovering from acute viral bronchiolitis (0-1 year). Whereas, the second part aimed to assess the robustness of the parameter estimation algorithm against interferences that might be introduced to the SLP signal during data acquisition.
The results obtained from the studies conducted in this work illustrated the feasibility of SLP procedure in obtaining a reliable assessment of lung function in children aged 0 to 17 years. This is true for children presenting with normal lung function and lung function affected by stable asthma, acute asthma/wheeze and acute viral bronchiolitis. The method proved sensitive enough to detect differences in clinically important measures in healthy, asthmatic and recovering populations. This suggests that the potential use of SLP in monitoring asthma and bronchiolitisworth further investigation. However, more refinements in data analysis techniques are required. The robustness of the algorithm to possible interferences also needs to be further investigated before being introduced clinically.

Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024

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