Novel technique for estimating Quiet breath Rate and Strength

摘要

Spirometry is a non-reproducible test for establishing the lung functional test (LFT) of a Chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) sufferer. CRD are irreversible and needs extreme care and proper medication. Spirometry is prone to errors and not recommended by different thoracic societies. The test relies on the ability of patient to exhale with full capacity wherein most of the patient fails. A device is required that can access the discomfort of a CRD patient with Normal/Quiet breath. S-MASK is a device which is targeted for the segment to access the wellness and relative/absolute relief from disease symptoms. It is a device of its kind which is presently tested for correctness with respect to its capability to compute breath rate using signal processing technique. The hypothesis is to prove that signal processing technique to compute breath rate is stable irrespective of the age, and same has been established. The breath rate computed by S-MASK is significantly close to actually observed with error of half breath only. The correlation has R-squared = 0.961 and p-value <; 10^{-4 with respect to peak count method. Another hypothesis taken for study is that power spectrum of breath pattern and breath rate has dependency on age. A study is performed over 34 healthy subjects, of two age groups, to understand the relation between the breath signal and its power. It has been found within the experiment that there is no relation between the signal frequency of breath and the power measure.}