Validation of an ECG-derived respiration monitoring method

The method proposed here includes automatic optimal lead(s) selection from multiple lead systems, calculates the EDR-values from QRS-area variations and obtains a respiratory waveform through interpolation. The respiratory frequency and the presence of apnea were calculated in the time-domain, identifying the respiratory cycles on the waveform through a min-max detection method. Validation of the method has been performed using eleven patients affected mostly by obstructive respiration disorder in a sleep laboratory; gold standard respiration data was taken from oral/nasal flow, EDR was calculated using 12-lead ECG synchronized with the sleep data. Summarized results for the automatic process are: respiration cycle detection sensitivity/specificity was 98%/90% respectively. Apnea detection sensitivity/specificity was 87%/85%, respectively.