Contactless Monitoring of Breathing Pattern and Thoracoabdominal Asynchronies in Preterm Infants Using Depth Cameras: A Feasibility Study.

Objective: Monitoring infants' breathing activity is crucial in research and clinical applications but remains a challenge. This study aims to develop a contactless method to monitor breathing patterns and thoracoabdominal asynchronies in infants inside the incubator, using depth cameras.

Methods: We proposed an algorithm to extract the 3D displacements of the ribcage and abdomen from the analysis of depth images.

Simultaneous monitoring of vocal doses and breathing patterns in professional singers.

Background: When learning and improving singing, the quantitative characterization of artists' performances based only on vocal parameters does not provide enough information to identify strategies for improvement. Simultaneous monitoring of sound production and breathing patterns in professional singers can allow the exploration of the mechanisms that promote effective singing modalities through association with respiratory efforts.

Methods: We developed and tested a novel portable device that simultaneously monitors vocal activity and breathing patterns without interfering with natural singing.

Oscillatory mechanics at birth for identifying infants requiring surfactant: a prospective, observational trial.

Background: Current criteria for surfactant administration assume that hypoxia is a direct marker of lung-volume de-recruitment. We first introduced an early, non-invasive assessment of lung mechanics by the Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) and evaluated its role in predicting the need for surfactant therapy.

Objectives: To evaluate whether lung reactance (Xrs) assessment by FOT within 2 h of birth identifies infants who would need surfactant within 24 h; to eventually determine Xrs performance and a cut-off value for early detection of infants requiring surfactant.

An Automated Approach for General Movement Assessment: A Pilot Study.

The objective of the study was to develop an automatic quantitative approach to identify infants with abnormal movements of the limbs at term equivalent age (TEA) compared with general movement assessment (GMA). GMA was performed at TEA by a trained operator in neonates with neurological risk. GMs were classified as normal (N) or abnormal (Ab), which included poor repertoire and cramped synchronized movements.

Accuracy of volume and pressure delivery by mechanical ventilators in use in neonatal intensive care units: A quality control study.

Objective: Despite technical specifications of neonatal mechanical ventilators (MVs) guarantee clinically irrelevant discrepancies between the set and the delivered values of ventilation parameters, previous studies reported large deviations. Most studies characterized performances of a given model/brand by studying a single device, disregarding possible intramodel differences, and leaving the accuracy of the ventilation parameters effectively delivered in clinical settings unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the real-life accuracy of pressure and volume parameters delivered by neonatal ventilators ready to be used on patients in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).