Evaluation of Respiratory Signal Record Based on Impedance Pneumography and Textile Electrodes

Abstract

In this work, the development of a continuous monitoring system of a human’s respiratory rate (RR) is presented. The system is based on the impedance pneumography method and it is divided into two main blocks: the electronic circuit and the electrodes. For the electrodes, two technologies are considered: the first one is Ag/AgCl disposable electrodes frequently used in clinical applications. The second one, known as textile electrode, is built on electrically conductive fabric. The performance of both types of electrodes is compared. Therefore, the experimental tests are carried out in two stages. In both stages, 5 records of 10 min were acquired in 5 healthy subjects. The first stage is recorded with disposable electrodes and the second one with textile electrodes. In order to compare the results obtained in each case, reference values were simultaneously recorded in each subject with a commercial polysomnography system. This system records respiratory activity using a method based on piezoelectric respiratory effort bands placed in the abdomen and thorax. Finally, the absolute (eA) and relative (eR) errors are computed taking into account RR values obtained from the designed and reference system for each stage. The results show similar performance among textile and disposable electrodes.