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Infant heart-rate measurement and oxygen desaturation detection with a digital video camera using imaging photoplethysmography

Journal of Perinatology volume 41, pages 1725–1731 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To assess the feasibility of using an ordinary digital video camera to measure heart rate and detect oxygen desaturations in healthy infants.

Study design

Heart rate and oxygen saturation were measured with a video camera by detecting small color changes in 28 infants’ foreheads and compared with standard pulse oximetry measures. Multivariable regression examined the relationship between infant characteristics and heart-rate measurement precision.

Results

The average bias of camera heart-rate measures was −4.2 beats per minute (BPM) and 95% limits of agreement were ±43.8 BPM. Desaturations detected by camera were 75% sensitive (15/20) and had a positive predictive value of 20% (15/74). Lower birth-weight was independently correlated with more precise heart-rate measures (8.05 BPM per kg, [95% CI 0.764–15.3]).

Conclusions

A digital video camera provides accurate but imprecise measures of infant heart rate and may provide a rough screening tool for oxygen desaturations.

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Fig. 1: Still image from video shows IPPG heart-rate measures generated from color changes within the ROI, shown in green over the infant’s forehead.
Fig. 2: Bland–Altman plot.
Fig. 3: Desaturations per video detected by standard pulse oximetry and camera IPPG.

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Code availability

The computer code used is publicly available and may be freely downloaded from https://github.com/thearn/webcam-pulse-detector. The modified version used by the authors is available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Marcia VanVleet, MD, James Padbury, MD, and the nurses working in the newborn nursery for their support. We thank the families of the infants who participated in this study, and the parents who granted us permission to publish the video of their infant. We thank Michael D. Goldberg, PhD and Joshua Bronson for helpful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women & Infants’ Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Matthew E. Wieler, Thomas G. Murphy, Hiral Mehta & G. Jesse Bender

  2. University of California—San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Matthew E. Wieler

  3. Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Morristown, NJ, USA

    Thomas G. Murphy

  4. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Mira Blecherman

  5. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Hiral Mehta

  6. Mission Health System, Asheville, NC, USA

    G. Jesse Bender

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  1. Matthew E. Wieler
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  5. G. Jesse Bender
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Contributions

MEW conceptualized and designed the study, designed the data collection instruments, collected data, performed data analyses, drafted the initial manuscript, reviewed and revised the manuscript. TGM designed the study, coordinated and supervised data collection, collected data, reviewed and revised the manuscript. MB critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. HM collected data and critically reviewed the manuscript. GJB designed the study, coordinated and supervised data collection, reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew E. Wieler.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wieler, M.E., Murphy, T.G., Blecherman, M. et al. Infant heart-rate measurement and oxygen desaturation detection with a digital video camera using imaging photoplethysmography. J Perinatol 41, 1725–1731 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-00967-1

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