Hamzah Hmeidi
Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine
Validation of structured light Plethysmography in paediatrics
respiratory disorders
Asthma and acute wheeze are non-curable diseases, and can lead to emergency
hospital admissions, particularly in the younger children. Accurate and early
diagnosis is the first step toward a robust management of the condition. Monitoring
response helps in further managing the condition and improving outcomes.
Conventional techniques used to measure lung function, such as spirometry, are
challenging, especially with very young children, as the child’s full cooperation and
effort are required to perform these tests. For this scenario there is a clear need to
find a way to quantify lung function and breathing effort. Structured light
Plethysmography (SLP) is a non-contact method of measuring chest and abdominal
wall movements during breathing, two digital cameras record the movement of a
pattern of light projected onto the chest and abdominal walls of the patient. A 3Dreconstruction of the projected area is built and tracked over the recorded period.
SLP offers significant advantages, as it provides information about regional changes
in ventilation which allow the comparisons of the relative contributions of chest vs.
abdomen. The aims of this study were to use SLP to measure tidal breathing in
asthmatic children and to determine breathing changes following bronchodilator
treatment.
Postgraduate Conference 2016
Page 30