Development of a respiratory rate monitoring device for mice anesthesia induction chamber

Piezoelectric sensors have played an important role both in medicine and medical research. In this application piezoelectric sensors are used to detect the respiratory patterns through the vibration caused by the expansion of the chest cavity. Currently available methods require placing the animal in direct contact with the sensor which is usually inconvenient. The main goal of this project is to develop and test an anesthetic chamber that can works as a respiratory rate monitoring device. This device intends to automate the anesthetic procedures by being able to record and analyze the respiratory rate in the computer, as well as other vital signals. During the lab tests, a volatile anesthetic - isoflurane - was introduced in the Plexiglas box specially designed for this study, to anesthetize the mouse. The signal acquisition was performed using a NI DAQ board and an application developed in LabVIEW 2009. The respiratory rate measured from the piezoelectric sensors was calculated in periods of 10 seconds and compared against the video image processing from webcam. Results from this study showed a good correlation of respiratory rate values between the video data and the piezoelectric signal.