Cost-efficient accurate monitoring of respiration rate using ECG

Different techniques are proposed to indirectly measure respiration rate (RR) from ECG. Such techniques are useful when ECG, but not respiration, is monitored. Examples include wearable patches that record one channel of ECG to monitor heart rate and rhythm, but have no way of monitoring respiration rate other than maybe through impedance. Measuring impedance using the ECG electrodes, however, adds to the hardware cost, increases the battery usage, and is prone to motion artifact. This study compares the performance of monitoring RR using ECG beat-to-beat variations in either peak time intervals or QRS amplitude in one or two ECG leads. We show that RR estimation may be more accurate by analyzing changes in QRS amplitude, even in only one lead, rather than the changes in heart rate.