Aims & Objectives:
As a part of a wireless monitoring study (RAPID) we measured the accuracy of respiratory rate (RR) measured by a wireless single channel ECG device (Isansys LifeTouch[D1]). Previous versions of the device had unacceptable accuracy for LifeTouch derived respiratory rate (LTRR) with %error 31.2, 22, and 49.6 in three different samples.
Aim: to assess accuracy of LTRR after upgrading RR calculation algorithm in infants and children above 1 year of age.
Methods
The study was approved by REC and parental consent was gained. We collected data on patients admitted to a cardiology ward in a specialist children’s hospital.
Research nurses calculated RR by direct clinical observations as per WHO standards and recorded LTRR from the wireless monitoring system at the same time.
We included patients with at least 4 pairs of comparisons at least 3 hours apart. Group A included infants under 1 year and Group B children older than 1 year.
Agreement between measurements considered acceptable below %error of 10%.
Results
41 patients were studied, 21 in Group A and 20 in Group B (Table 1). We found large variability of accuracy within both patient groups: median (IQR) %error was 13.8 (4.9–32.4) in infants versus 9.1 (3.8–19.4) in older children.
Conclusions
Accuracy of LTRR has improved with the new algorithm. Accuracy of LTRR is better in older children, however further improvement needed to reduce between and within subject variability.
