Evaluation of non-invasive measurement of haemoglobin using PPG in clinically ill pediatric patients

Abstract

Non-invasive haemoglobin (SpHb) estimation using Photoplethysmograph signal has gained enormous attention among researches in order to provide an earlydiagnosis to polycythemia, anaemia, various cardiovascular diseases, etc. The primary objective of this work is to evaluate the performance efficiency of SpHb monitoring using PPG in clinically ill pediatric population. PPG signal was obtained from the pediatric patients, and SpHb was calculated from the characteristic features of PPG. Haemoglobin value obtained through venous blood sample was compared with SpHb. Theabsolute mean difference between the SpHb and Hbref was 0.78g/dL (SD 0.99; 0.1 to 4.1).For a statistical analysis of the correlation between SpHb and Hblab, IBM SPSS statistics software was used. Bland-Altman analysis, T-test and Linear regression analysis were further used for finding the agreeability limits. Overestimation of SpHb value was observed for lower Hblab values, and SpHb failed to detect anaemic subjects.