This study provides explorative insights into the information and communication technology (ICT) for promoting the physical activity level. ICT has provided innovative ideas and perspectives for PA measurement, assessment, evaluation and health intervention. ICT that aims to increase exercise for the entire population should be of a well-oriented and easy-to-use design with the options of tailored and personalized feedback, coaching, and ranking and supporting; it should be capable of setting goals and working with a schedule and be accompanied by a website to provide overviews of the users' exercise results and progress.
Exercise ; psychology ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; methods ; Health Promotion ; methods ; Humans ; Internet ; Mobile Applications ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; methods ; Smartphone

Cardiac output (CO) monitoring is a crucial part of the hemodynamic status monitoring. So far, thermodilution method, which is clinically recognized as the gold standard method to monitor cardiac output, still has irreplaceable advantages. This paper mainly introduces the use of platform for cardiac output measurement based on thermodilution method, mainly including three parts: the hardware platform, software design and algorithm process. A large amount of test data of this system has been got by CO simulator testing in the laboratory and preliminary clinical tests in the hospital. The testing result showed that using the proposed system can achieve good accuracy and repeatability.
Algorithms ; Cardiac Output ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; methods ; Thermodilution

Pulse contour cardiac output (PiCCO) monitoring is a new type of invasive hemodynamic monitoring technology, which is more and more often applied in perioperative period and the patients suffering from multiple injuries, septic shock, and extensive burn. With PiCCO one is able to monitor patients' hemodynamic indexes safely, timely, accurately, and continuously to provide reference for judgment of patients' condition and proper quality and quantity of fluid administration. This technique has a good prospect in clinical application.
Cardiac Output ; physiology ; Fluid Therapy ; methods ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation

Integrating physiological parameters measurement into mobile devices is a development tendency of mobile healthcare. Measurement methods for skin moisture and body fat content are studied in this paper. Electrodes are designed for easy integration into mobile devices, and can be embedded in the cover of the mobile phone. Experiments were conducted to obtain a fast and easy measurement method. The results of evaluation show that the measurement system can achieve the same accuracy as commercial products (with correlation above 0.9 and root mean squared error below 4%) in skin moisture and body fat content measurement. Measurement of local-area body fat content showed a nearly linear positive correlation between local-area body fat content and local-area body impedance.
Adipose Tissue ; Adiposity ; Humans ; Mobile Applications ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; methods ; Skin Physiological Phenomena ; Skinfold Thickness

The electro-optic technique of measuring the cardiovascular pulse wave, known as photoplethysmography (PPG), is clinically utilised for noninvasive characterisation of physiological components by dynamic monitoring of tissue optical absorption. Non-invasive PPG technology has been used in a wide range of individual, home or public health monitoring. The application of PPG has become one of the hot topics in the fields of biomedical engineering recently. This paper reviews the optical origins of PPG signal, the feature of PPG technology, the applications of PPG in physiological measurements and its development in the future.
Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; methods ; Photoplethysmography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

This study designed an audio signal acquisition system to achieve real-time detection of R peak for heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, substituting ECG-specific data acquisition board with sound card. It is proved that the R peak with low frequency can be gathered by sound card. The comparison with PowerLab signal acquisition system has shown that the acquisition system of R peak could accurately detect the R peak. The R peak detected by sound card and PowerLab signal acquisition system completely overlap each other, while RR intervals has no difference. The HRV analysis was accurate and reliable with the RR interval from sound card. This low cost, high performance, strong compatibility and easy upgraded acquisition system of R peak compared with the traditional data acquisition board has the value of practical uses and might have broad applications in the future.
Algorithms ; Electrocardiography ; methods ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; Sound

OBJECTIVETo assess agreement between the ultrasonic cardiac output monitor (USCOM) and conventional echocardiography (ECHO) in the measurement of cardiac output in newborn infants, investigate the accuracy and clinical utility of the USCOM in healthy neonates. To explore a more convenient, faster, more accurate hemodynamic monitoring method, for improving the outcome of the critically ill neonates.

METHODFrom October 1(st), 2011 to March 31(st), 2012, a total of 49 infants were included, 20 were term infants, 29 were preterm infants. Cardiac outputs were measured by both ultrasonic cardiac output monitor and echocardiography in all the infants, 60 times measurements were done in both the term infants the preterm infants. The cardiac output of the left and right ventricles, heart rate, diameter and velocity time integral of the aortic valve and pulmonary artery valve of each infant were recorded. The consistency of two methods was analyzed as described by Bland-Altman.

RESULTTerm the term infant group includea 20 term infants, 11 were male and 9 were female, the mean gestational age were (38.1 ± 0.56) weeks, mean age were (2 ± 1) days, mean weight were (3.2 ± 0.29) kg, mean Apgar score were 10. The mean left ventricular output measured by Echo was (242.3 ± 38.9) ml/(kg·min), measured by USCOM was (211.7 ± 38.5) ml/(kg·min); The mean right ventricular output measured by ECHO was (318.9 ± 47.0) ml/(kg·min), measured by USCOM was (340.7 ± 76) ml/(kg·min). Agreement between Echo and USCOM for left ventricular output (LVO) was (bias, ± limits of agreement, mean % error): (30.6 ± 51.1) ml/(kg·min), 21%, and for right ventricular output (RVO): (-21.8 ± 105) ml/(kg·min), 33.2%. The diameter of the aortic valve and pulmonary artery valve measured by conventional echocardiography were significantly larger than that estimated by ultrasonic cardiac output monitor (P < 0.001). The velocity time integral of the pulmonary artery valve measured by ultrasonic cardiac output monitor were significantly larger than measured by conventional echocardiography (P < 0.001). The heart rate, velocity time integral of the aortic valve measured by two methods had no significant differences (P > 0.05). The preterm neonates group included 29 preterm infants, 18 were male and 11 were female, the mean gestational age were (32.6 ± 2.8) weeks, mean age were (2 ± 1) days, mean weight were (1.88 ± 0.57) kg. All the infants were diagnosis as preterm infant, low birth weight. The mean left ventricular output measured by ECHO was (259.8 ± 70) ml/(kg·min), measured by USCOM was (235.6 ± 61.8) ml/(kg·min), the mean right ventricular output measured by ECHO was (318.9 ± 47.0) ml/(kg·min), measured by USCOM was (340.7 ± 76) ml/(kg·min). Agreement between Echo and USCOM for left ventricular output (LVO) was (bias, ± limits of agreement, mean % error): (24.1 ± 71.2) ml/(kg·min), 27.4%, and for right ventricular output (RVO): (-29.5 ± 192.9) ml/(kg·min), 51.8%. The diameter of the aortic valve and pulmonary artery valve measured by conventional echocardiography were significantly larger than estimated by ultrasonic cardiac output monitor (P < 0.001). The velocity time integral of the pulmonary artery valve measured by USCOM were significantly larger than that measured by conventional echocardiography (P < 0.001). The heart rate, velocity time integral of the aortic valve measured by two methods had no significant differences (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAgreement between USCOM and conventional ECHO in the LVO measurement is acceptable, both in the term group and the preterm group. LVO measurement measured by USCOM is recommended. The accuracy and clinical utility of the USCOM in neonates is acceptable. USCOM is a convenient, fast and accurate hemodynamic monitoring method in neonates. While the agreement between USCOM and conventional ECHO in the RVO measurement is poor, especially in the preterm group, the results of the RVO cannot be considered interchangeable in the two methods.

Cardiac Output ; Echocardiography, Doppler ; instrumentation ; methods ; Female ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Hemodynamics ; physiology ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Male ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; methods ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ventricular Function ; physiology

This paper proposes a multifunctional fitness monitor based on FFT and photoelectric sensor, which uses pulse-type and non-invasive detection method to complete the analysis of the human blood oxygen saturation and heart rate. The system collects the absorption of red and infrared light absorbed by fingertip, then by programmable gain amplifier and the Fast Fourier analysis, it extracts the amplitude, frequency of the AC signal. PIC24FJ128GA010 is used to complete the collection, automatic gain judgment and signal processing. Finally, the result is calibrated by pulse blood oxygen emulator. Furthermore, it realizes the pedometer function based on three axles acceleration sensors MMA7260, which enhances fitness monitor's usability and allows people to obtain dynamic physiological signs when exercising.
Equipment Design ; Fourier Analysis ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; Oximetry ; instrumentation ; methods

PURPOSE: The mechanisms underlying syncope remain unknown in about 20% of patients with recurrent syncope. The implantable loop recorder (ILR) has been shown to be a useful diagnostic tool in patients with unexplained syncope even after negative initial evaluations. Nevertheless, ILR has rarely been used in clinical practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 18 consecutive patients who had an ILR implanted at our center because of recurrent unexplained syncope after extensive diagnostic tests between February 2006 and June 2011. RESULTS: Diagnosis was confirmed in 10 (55.6%) of the 18 enrolled patients (13 males, 61+/-15 years). The confirmed diagnoses included sick sinus syndrome (n=6, 60%), advanced atrioventricular block (n=2, 20%) and ventricular tachyarrhythmia (n=2, 20%). The mean follow-up durations of the total study subjects and the diagnosed patients were 11.3+/-10.6 months and 5.6+/-9.2 months, respectively. Of the 10 diagnosed patients, 8 (80%) were diagnosed within 6 months of loop recorder implantation. CONCLUSION: ILR may be a valuable and effective diagnostic tool for patients with unexplained syncope.
Adult ; Aged ; Electrocardiography/instrumentation/methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Monitoring, Physiologic/instrumentation/methods ; Syncope/*diagnosis/etiology

By studying of the pathology of human sleep and respiration disorder diseases, the method of sleep and respiration measurement, the evaluation index, a kind of micro sleep monitor and evaluation system was designed. Based on the methods of spectrum absorption and force changing, using high performance pulse oxygen saturation monitoring technology and respiration monitoring technology, developing a low-cost, high usability sleep monitor system which is convenience for family using. It can measure the signal of human oxygen saturation and chest respiration, can improve the quality of signal and reliable from arithmetic and sensor installing.
Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; methods ; Oximetry ; instrumentation ; methods ; Respiration ; Sleep ; physiology ; Software Design