Determination of compression depth during resuscitation using angular measurement

Abstract

More than one million people die in Europe every year by cardiovascular disease. Many of them could have been rescued by a correctly performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). During chest compression it is much easier to reach the recommended depth of compression, by using a feedback system. In this paper a new method for determining the depth of chest compression is presented. The presented system measures angles of inclination of 4 or 5 acceleration sensors. With these angles it computes a parable taken as approximation curve of the chest surface from the victim's clavicle to the lower end of his sternum. Therefore the acceleration sensors have to be evenly spread in one line between clavicle and lower end of sternum. Monitoring the parable, especially the changes of the lowest end of it, gives the depth of compression. The presented system reaches a mean absolute error of 0.18 cm. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.