Monitoring of respiration and cardiorespiratory interactions from multichannel seismocardiography signals

Seismocardiography (SCG) uses accelerometers to record cardiac-induced accelerations of the chest wall. Cardiorespiratory interactions cause changes in amplitude and morphology of the SCG signals. Accelerometers can also directly monitor respiration by tracking thoracic inclination. This study thoroughly investigated the influence of accelerometer placement on the monitoring accuracy of respiration and cardiorespiratory interactions from SCG signals. Simultaneous recordings acquired by 16 accelerometers and a respiration belt placed onto 9 subjects’ chests were analyzed. Respiratory signals were estimated considering: (a) chest inclination, (b) amplitude modulation (AM) and (c) morphological changes of SCG signals for each sensor location. For the first time in literature, a continuous description of respiratory-induced changes in SCG morphology was obtained via a morphological similarity index (MSi). The performance of respiratory acts detection and inter-breath intervals (IBIs) estimation was evaluated against the concurrent reference respiration signal. High accuracy was achieved in all three kinds of respiratory signals, with average sensitivity and positive predictive value of 95.8% and 95.5% for chest inclination, 85.9% and 84.4% for AM, 94.3% and 95.7% for MSi. Moreover, IBIs measurements showed non-significant biases and limits of agreement of about ± 0.8 s for chest inclination and MSi, and ± 1 s for AM. Performance achieved by chest inclination and MSi appeared not much influenced by sensor location, while AM showed higher variations. Information on breathing and cardiorespiratory interactions can be accurately obtained via SCG on multiple sites on the chest.