A wearable device for monitoring patients during PAP therapy

A wearable device was designed and developed to monitor apnea patients during Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) therapy. This device consisted of a gyroscope attached to a PAP mask, which would be worn by the patient during therapy. The device was tested on a participant who laid on their back, left and right sides for a period of five minutes each. Signals from the gyroscope were then analyzed and algorithms to detect movement episodes and estimate heart rate were applied. There was evidence that the heart rate estimation is less accurate when the wearer is lying on their side when compared with lying on their back, however the mean heart rate error was below 5 beats per minute for all sleeping positions. The signals from the gyroscope were also analyzed and compared with gyroscope signals from an average ballistocardiography (BCG) signal measured from the chest reported in other work. The signal measured from the PAP mask had a lower Signal-to-Noise Ratio than the gyroscope signal measured from the chest, however there was some evidence that the larger BCG signal peaks and troughs were present in both signals. Based on these results, this device has potential for improving the effectiveness of the PAP therapy, and for monitoring the sleep quality and cardiovascular health of these patients.