Abstract
Background
Contactless vital signs (VS) measurement with video photoplethysmography (vPPG), motion
analysis (MA), and passive infrared thermometry (pIR) has shown promise.
Objectives
To compare conventional (contact-based) and experimental contactless VS measurement
approaches for emergency department (ED) walk-in triage in pandemic conditions.
Methods
Patients' heart rates (HR), respiratory rates (RR), and temperatures were measured
with cardiorespiratory monitor and vPPG, manual count and MA, and contact thermometers
and pIR, respectively.
Results
There were 475 walk-in ED patients studied (95% of eligible). Subjects were 35.2 ±
20.8 years old (range 4 days‒95 years); 52% female, 0.2% transgender; had Fitzpatrick
skin type of 2.3 ± 1.4 (range 1‒6), Emergency Severity Index of 3.0 ± 0.6 (range 2‒5),
and contact temperature of 36.83°C (range 35.89–39.4°C) (98.3°F [96.6‒103°F]). Pediatric
HR and RR data were excluded from analysis due to research challenges associated with
pandemic workflow. For a 30-s, unprimed "Triage" window in 377 adult patients, vPPG-MA
acquired 377 (100%) HR measurements featuring a mean difference with cardiorespiratory
monitor HR of 5.9 ± 12.8 beats/min (R = 0.6833) and 252 (66.8%) RR measurements featuring a mean difference with manual
RR of −0.4 ± 2.6 beats/min (R = 0.8128). Subjects' Emergency Severity Index components based on conventional VS
and contactless VS matched for 83.8% (HR) and 89.3% (RR). Filtering out vPPG-MA measurements
with low algorithmic confidence reduced VS acquired while improving correlation with
conventional measurements. The mean difference between contact and pIR temperatures
was 0.83 ± 0.67°C (range −1.16–3.5°C) (1.5 ± 1.2°F [range −2.1–6.3°F]); pIR fever
detection improved with post hoc adjustment for mean bias.
Conclusion
Contactless VS acquisition demonstrated good agreement with contact methods during
adult walk-in ED patient triage in pandemic conditions; clinical applications will
need further study.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 07, 2022
Accepted:
June 4,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 13,
2022
Received:
January 2,
2022
Identification
Copyright
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