Accuracy of a New Pulse Oximetry in Detection of Arterial Oxygen Saturation and Heart Rate Measurements: The SOMBRERO Study.

Early diagnosis and continuous monitoring of respiratory failure (RF) in the course of the most prevalent chronic cardio-vascular (CVD) and respiratory diseases (CRD) are a clinical, unresolved problem because wearable, non-invasive, and user-friendly medical devices, which could grant reliable measures of the oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) in real-life during daily activities are still lacking. In this study, we investigated the agreement between a new medical wrist-worn device (BrOxy M) and a reference, medical pulseoximeter (Nellcor PM 1000N). Twelve healthy volunteers (aged 20−51 years, 84% males, 33% with black skin, obtaining, during the controlled hypoxia test, the simultaneous registration of 219 data pairs, homogeneously deployed in the levels of Sat.O2 97%, 92%, 87%, 82% [ISO 80601-2-61:2017 standard (paragraph EE.3)]) were included. The paired T test 0 and the Bland-Altman plot were performed to assess bias and accuracy. SpO2 and HR readings by the two devices resulted significantly correlated (r = 0.91 and 0.96, p < 0.001, respectively). Analyses excluded the presence of proportional bias. For SpO2, the mean bias was −0.18% and the accuracy (ARMS) was 2.7%. For HR the mean bias was 0.25 bpm and the ARMS3.7 bpm. The sensitivity to detect SpO2 ≤ 94% was 94.4%. The agreement between BrOxy M and the reference pulse oximeter was "substantial" (for SpO2 cut-off 94% and 90%, k = 0.79 and k = 0.80, respectively). We conclude that BrOxy M demonstrated accuracy, reliability and consistency in measuring SpO2 and HR, being fully comparable with a reference medical pulseoxymeter, with no adverse effects. As a wearable device, Broxy M can measure continually SpO2 and HR in everyday life, helping in detecting and following up CVD and CRD subjects.

Advances in surface EMG: recent progress in detection and processing techniques.

This article is the first section of a review work structured in three parts and concerning a) advances in surface EMG detection and processing techniques, b) recent progress in surface EMG clinical research applications and, c) myoelectric control in neurorehabilitation. This article deals with the state of the art regarding a) the electrode-skin interface (equivalent circuits, skin treatment, conductive gels), b) signal detection modalities, spatial filters and front-end amplifiers, c) power line interference removal, separation of propagating and non-propagating potentials and removal of outliers from surface EMG signal maps, d) segmentation of surface EMG signal maps, e) decomposition of surface EMG into the constituent action potential trains, and f) relationship between surface EMG and force. The material is presented with an effort to fill gaps left by previous reviews and identify areas open for future research.

A novel ultrasound methodology for estimating spine mineral density.

We investigated the possible clinical feasibility and accuracy of an innovative ultrasound (US) method for diagnosis of osteoporosis of the spine. A total of 342 female patients (aged 51-60 y) underwent spinal dual X-ray absorptiometry and abdominal echographic scanning of the lumbar spine. Recruited patients were subdivided into a reference database used for US spectral model construction and a study population for repeatability and accuracy evaluation. US images and radiofrequency signals were analyzed via a new fully automatic algorithm that performed a series of spectral and statistical analyses, providing a novel diagnostic parameter called the osteoporosis score (O.S.). If dual X-ray absorptiometry is assumed to be the gold standard reference, the accuracy of O.S.-based diagnoses was 91.1%, with k = 0.859 (p < 0.0001). Significant correlations were also found between O.S.-estimated bone mineral densities and corresponding dual X-ray absorptiometry values, with r(2) values up to 0.73 and a root mean square error of 6.3%-9.3%. The results obtained suggest that the proposed method has the potential for future routine application in US-based diagnosis of osteoporosis.