APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CHRONIC DISEASE MONITORING

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method for monitoring a person suffering from a chronic medical condition predicts and assesses physiological changes which could affect the care of that subject. Examples of such chronic diseases include (but are not limited to) heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and diabetes. Monitoring includes measurements of respiratory movements, which can then be analyzed for evidence of changes in respiratory rate, or for events such as hypopneas, apneas and periodic breathing. Monitoring may be augmented by the measurement of nocturnal heart rate in conjunction with respiratory monitoring. Additional physiological measurements can also be taken such as subjective symptom data, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and various molecular markers. Embodiments for detection of respiratory patterns and heart rate are disclosed, together with exemplar implementations of decision processes based on these measurements.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A system for monitoring a subject, the system comprising at least: a sensor that receives signals reflected from the subject's body and generates physiological data indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject; a data aggregation device configured to receive the at least one measurement of physiological data indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject; and an input device configured to receive at least one user-generated response from the subject; the system being configured to: derive, using one or more local processor at the data aggregation device and/or one or more remote processor, at least one physiological parameter from the at least one measurement of physiological data, and selectively combine, using the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor, the derived at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response; wherein the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor are configured to implement an automated classifier to selectively combine the derived at least one physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide an output associated with a health assessment of the subject.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a select local processor of the one or more local processor is configured to pre-process the received at least one measurement of physiological data to derive at least one physiological parameter.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the select local processor is further configured to selectively combine the at least one derived physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide the output associated with the health assessment of the subject.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit the derived at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response to a select remote processor of the one or more remote processor; wherein the select remote processor selectively combines the derived at least one physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide the output associated with the health assessment.

6. The system of claim 2, further comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit the received at least one measurement of physiological data and the at least one user-generated response to a select remote processor of the one or more remote processor; wherein the select remote processor: (a) processes the received at least one measurement of physiological data to derive the at least one physiological parameter, and (b) selectively combines the derived at least one physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response, using the automated classifier, to provide the output associated with the health assessment.

7. The system of claim 2, further comprising a sensor configured to transmit radio waves and detect transmitted radio waves reflected from a body of the subject, wherein the reflected radio waves are indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject.

8. The system of claim 2, further comprising: a local database at the data aggregation device or a remote database that is configured to store the at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response.

9. The system of claim 2, further comprising: a display operatively coupled to a local or remote processor such that a trend in the health assessment of the subject may be visualized.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the system is configured to receive input data indicative of further physiological parameters selected from the group consisting of; blood pressure, a forced expiratory volume, a peak expiratory flow, a blood oxygen level, a blood glucose level, a measurement of B natriuretic peptides, a measurement of C-reactive protein, significant bodily movement and body weight.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the data aggregation device is further configured to exchange data between the sensor and the processor.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one derived physiological parameter includes a derived movement signal calculated through a combination of two quadrature movement signals using a phase demodulation technique.

13. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor is further configured to determine a proposed clinical intervention step by applying a set of automated rules to the health assessment of the subject.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor is further configured to calculate a likelihood of a significant clinical deterioration having occurred based on at least the measured at least one physiological parameter.

15. The system of claim 2, wherein the received at least one measurement of physiological data comprises a composite signal that includes at least one of a respiratory parameter, a cardiac parameter, and a bodily motion parameter.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor derives respiratory, cardiac, and body motion parameters from the composite signal, and the derived respiratory, cardiac and bodily motion parameters are selectively combined to provide the output associated with the health assessment of the subject.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the bodily motion parameter comprises a significant bodily movement.

18. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one user-generated response also includes symptom data from the subject.

19. The system of claim 2, wherein an occurrence of apneas and hypopneas is determined from the derived at least one physiological parameter.

20. The system of claim 2, wherein an occurrence of periodic breathing is determined using the derived at least one physiological parameter.

21. The system of claim 2, wherein a characteristic time period of periodic breathing is determined using the derived at least one physiological parameter.

22. The system of claim 11, wherein the sensor is configured to output a signal comprising a respiratory parameter, the respiratory parameter including one or more of respiratory rate, respiratory effort and respiratory frequency.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the respiratory frequency comprises one of median frequency, variance of the respiratory frequency, percentile distribution of respiratory frequency, or autocorrelation of respiratory frequency.

24. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one user-generated response comprises demographic information

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the demographic information includes the subject's age or sex.

26. The system of claim 2, wherein a particular measurement of physiological data is indicative of a respiratory parameter, and the system is further configured to: calculate a respiratory effort envelope of the particular measurement, the respiratory effort envelope indicating a relative amplitude of respiratory effort, and derive one or more respiratory features from the calculated respiratory effort envelope; wherein the system is configured to use the one or more respiratory features to provide the output associated with the health assessment of the subject.

27. A method for monitoring a subject, the method comprising: receiving, at a sensor, one or more signals reflected from the subject's body; generating physiological data indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject, receiving, at a data aggregation device, the at least one measurement of physiological data indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject; receiving at least one user-generated response from the subject; deriving, by one or more local processor of the data aggregation device and/or one or more remote processor, at least one physiological parameter from the at least one measurement of physiological data; and selectively combining, by the one or more local processor of the data aggregation device and/or the one or more remote processor, the derived at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response; wherein the one or more local processor and/or the one or more remote processor is configured to implement an automated classifier to selectively combine the at least one derived physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide an output associated with a health assessment of the subject.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising: pre-processing, by a local processor of the aggregation device, the received at least one measurement of physiological data to derive at least one physiological parameter.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising: selectively combining, by the local processor, the at least one derived physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide the output associated with the health assessment of the subject.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising: transmitting the derived at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response to a select remote processor of the one or more remote processor; wherein the select remote processor selectively combines the derived at least one physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response to provide the output associated with the health assessment.

31. The method of claim 27, further comprising: transmitting the received at least one measurement of physiological data and the at least one user-generated response to one of the one or more remote processor; wherein the one of the one or more remote processor: a) processes the received at least one measurement of physiological data to derive the at least one physiological parameter, and b) selectively combines the derived at least one physiological parameter with the at least one user-generated response, using the automated classifier, to provide the output associated with the health assessment.

32. The method of claim 27, further comprising: transmitting, from the sensor, radio waves; and receiving, at the sensor, radio waves reflected from a body of the subject, wherein the reflected radio waves are indicative of at least one physiological parameter of the subject.

33. The method of claim 27, further comprising: storing, in a local database at the data aggregation device or a remote database, the at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response.

34. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one user-generated response includes symptom data from the subject.

35. The method of claim 27, further comprising: applying a set of automated rules to the derived at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response to output a proposed clinical intervention.

36. The method of claim 27, further comprising: calculating a likelihood of a significant clinical deterioration having occurred based on the derived at least one physiological parameter.

37. The method of claim 27, wherein the output includes at least one of the at least one physiological parameter and the at least one user-generated response, and the health assessment.

38. The method of claim 27, further comprising: determining, using the derived at least one physiological parameter, an occurrence of apneas and hypopneas, an occurrence of periodic breathing, and/or a characteristic time period of periodic breathing.

39. The method of claim 32, further comprising outputting from the sensor a signal having a respiratory parameter, the respiratory parameter including one or more of respiratory rate, respiratory effort and respiratory frequency.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the respiratory frequency comprises one of median frequency, variance of the respiratory frequency, percentile distribution of respiratory frequency, or autocorrelation of respiratory frequency.

41. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one user-generated response comprises demographic information.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the demographic information includes user age or sex.

43. The method of claim 27, wherein a particular measurement of physiological data is indicative of a respiratory parameter, and the method further comprises: calculating a respiratory effort envelope of the particular measurement, the respiratory effort envelope indicating a relative amplitude of respiratory effort, and deriving one or more respiratory features from the calculated respiratory effort envelope; wherein the one or more respiratory features are also used to provide the output associated with the health assessment of the subject.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Embodiments of the disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which the acronym “a.u.” is placed on the graphs to represent “arbitrary units”. The units for the signals described below for respiratory effort and heart rate can be calibrated to more meaningful units such as liters/minute (for respiratory tidal volume) or mm (for ballistocardiogram displacements on the skin).

[0025] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall schematic of an embodiment in which the subject is being monitored, together with devices for measuring respiratory patterns, heart rate and other physiological measurements. A device for capturing subjective symptom data is also depicted. It denotes the possibility of both local and remote archiving and analysis of the measurements.

[0026] FIG. 2 illustrates a representative embodiment in which non-contact biomotion sensor is placed near the person being monitored. The motion signal can be used to derive respiration and heart rate patterns which are used as part of the chronic disease monitoring system.

[0027] FIG. 3 shows how the raw motion signal derived from a bio-motion sensor can be decomposed into respiratory movements, cardiac movements, and movements associated with large bodily motion such as turning over or arm-movements.

[0028] FIG. 4 illustrates how the process of phase demodulation applied to the I and Q signals obtained from a motion sensor can be used to derive a more accurate combined movement signal.

[0029] FIGS. 5A and 5B show examples of respiratory patterns which are used in the chronic disease monitoring system. FIG. 5A illustrates an episode of periodic breathing (Cheyne-Stokes respiration) in which respiratory effort amplitude oscillates over several minutes. FIG. 5B illustrates two apneas detected by the biomotion sensor shown in FIG. 2.

[0030] FIG. 6 shows two estimates of respiratory effort derived from biomotion sensor shown in FIG. 2 using quadrature (I and Q) signals and an envelope of the signal derived from the respiratory effort signals.

[0031] FIG. 7A shows how the respiratory envelope changes when a hypopnea occurs, and FIG. 7B shows how the respiratory envelope changes when an apnea occurs.

[0032] FIGS. 8A-8D show how the respiratory envelope changes over longer periods of time in the presence and absence of periodic breathing, including illustrating the power spectral densities of the respiratory envelopes in the presence of periodic breathing, and its absence. FIG. 8A is the respiratory envelope of a person with heart failure measured over a five minute period. FIG. 8B is the power spectral density of the respiratory envelope shown in FIG. 8A. FIG. 8C is the respiratory envelope of a person without heart failure measured over a five minute period. FIG. 8D is the power spectral density of the respiratory envelope shown in FIG. 8C.

[0033] FIG. 9A shows an example of a respiratory effort signal recorded using the device shown in FIG. 2, and how the spectrum (FIG. 9B) of a 30-second epoch can be used to define respiratory rate.

[0034] FIG. 10 shows an example of the agreement level between the characteristic modulation period of subjects with periodic breathing estimated using an algorithm based on the signals obtained from the sensor in FIG. 2, versus gold standard respiratory measurements using clinical polysonmnogram measurements.

[0035] FIG. 11 shows an example of the agreement level between the estimated Apnea Hypopnea Index of subjects using an algorithm based on the signals obtained from the sensor in FIG. 2, versus gold standard respiratory measurements using clinical polysomnogram measurements.

[0036] FIG. 12 shows how the non-contact biomotion sensor of FIG. 2 can also indicate heart rate as well as respiration rate.

[0037] FIG. 13A illustrates a rule-based method for determining if a person with heart failure requires an intervention such as a nurse-call, and FIG. 13B illustrates a statistically based classifier approach to making a decision as to whether a person with a chronic medical condition has experienced a deterioration.

[0038] FIG. 14 shows an illustration of how the measurements from a person with chronic disease could be visualized over prolonger time periods (several weeks or months).

[0039] FIG. 15 shows an example of Apnea Hypopnea Indices measured in two subjects over approximate three week periods, using the system described in this specification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall schematic of an embodiment of this disclosure. Subject 101 is monitored using respiratory sensor 102. Examples of respiratory sensors include abdominal inductance bands, thoracic inductance bands, a non-contact biomotion sensor, or an airflow sensor. The monitored respiration parameters can include respiratory effort, respiratory movement, tidal volume, or respiratory rate. Optionally device for capturing symptoms 103 can also be included. This could be as simple as a written diary, or could be an electronic data capture device which asks questions such as “do you feel breathless”, “did you have discomfort breathing during sleep”, “do you feel better or worse than yesterday”, “do you feel your heart is racing”, etc. One embodiment of such an electronic device could be a customized tablet PC, or alternatively a cell phone could be used, with voice-capture of subjective responses. The person's sleeping position could be obtained by asking a simple question such as “how many pillows did you use for sleeping”, or through use of a position (tilt) sensor.

[0041] Orthopnea is a common symptom in heart failure. For simplicity, symptom questions could be restricted to requiring only simple yes/no responses. Optionally, further devices could be used to assess clinical status. Weight scale 104 has proven utility in monitoring heart failure through objective assessment of weight gain due to fluid retention. Other medical sensors 105 can be integrated such as ECG monitors, blood pressure monitors, point-of-care blood assays of BNP, spirometers (which can measure forced expiratory volume, and peak expiratory flow), oximeters (which can measure blood oxygen levels), blood glucose monitors, and point-of-care blood assays of C-reactive protein.

[0042] Measurements made from all the sensors mentioned above (respiration, weighing scales and other sensors) may be aggregated together in data aggregation device 106. Aggregation device 106 could be a cell-phone, a personal computer, a tablet computer, or a customized computing device. This aggregation device can also be referred to as a data hub and, at a minimum, it may transfer data from the respiratory sensor 102 to the aggregation device itself In one aspect of this embodiment, data aggregation device 106 may also have the capability of transmitting the collected data to remote data analyzer 107. Remote data analyzer 107 may itself be a server computer, personal computer, mobile computing device or another customized computing device. Remote data analyzer 107 will typically have storage, processing, memory and computational elements. Remote data analyzer 107 will typically be configured to provide a database capability, and may include further data archiving, processing and analysis means, and would typically have a display capability via display 108 so that a remote user (e.g., a cardiac nurse) can review data.

[0043] FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the respiration sensor, in which non-contact biomotion sensor 201 is used to monitor the respiratory effort and heart rate of a subject 202. This non-contact sensor is described in PCT Publication Number WO 2007/143535 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,716, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Non-contact sensor 201 is placed near the bed of the person 202 during sleep, and monitors movement. It operates by sending out a short impulse of radio-waves (in field-testing of this system, a frequency of 5.8 GHz is used with a pulse length of 5 ns). The reflection of this impulse is then mixed with a local delayed copy of the transmitted impulse. The mixer circuit outputs a signal which is related to the phase difference between the transmitted and received pulses-if the target is moving, this movement is modulated onto the phase signal. This phase signal is referred to as a raw movement signal. There are other non-contact motion sensor technologies which can be used analogously. Infra-red detection systems can be used to detect movement, as can ultrasonic transducers. To improve the sensitivity and robustness of a non-contact biomotion sensor, it is useful to have a quadrature detection system in which there are effectively two sensors with the base phase of their oscillations offset by n/4 radians. These two effective sensors can be implemented by using a single source oscillator, but whose base phase is modulated periodically by n/4 radians.

[0044] FIG. 3 shows how the raw movement signal from biomotion sensor 301 can be decomposed into three components corresponding to significant bodily movement, respiratory effort and heart rate. Significant bodily movement would correspond to an action such as turning over, moving a leg, or twisting the head. Heart rate signal can be obtained using a cardiac activity detector 302 which in one embodiment is a bandpass filter applied to the raw movement signal. This bandpass filter preferentially passes signals in the region 0.5 to 10 Hz, which reflect heart rate signals. More elaborate processing such as preprocessing to remove movement and respiratory artifacts may be necessary. An alternative approach is to take an epoch of the raw signal and generate its power spectral density. Peaks in this spectral density (e.g., at 1 Hz) can be used to identify the average heart rate over that epoch (e.g., 1 Hz corresponds to 60 beats/minute). In this manner, a heart rate signal can be generated.

[0045] Similarly respiratory effort signal can be generated by a respiratory detector 303, which in one embodiment is a bandpass filter applied to the raw movement signal. This bandpass filter preferentially passes signals in the region 0.05 to 1 Hz which reflect respiratory signals. An alternative approach is to take an epoch of the raw signal and generate its power spectral density. Peaks in this spectral density (e.g., at 0.2 Hz) can be used to identify the average breathing rate over that epoch (e.g., 0.2 Hz corresponds to 12 breaths/minute). Finally, large bodily movements not related to respiration or cardiac activity can be identified using the motion detector 304 which implements techniques for motion detection 304. One method for detecting motion is to high-pass filter the raw movement signal, and then threshold the absolute value of the filtered signal. A second method is to calculate the energy of the raw movement signal over short epochs (e.g., 2 seconds). If the amplitude of the energy exceeds a threshold, a movement is detected. The amplitude of the movement can be assessed by calculating the energy value in that epoch. In that way, an activity count can be assigned to short epochs. The movement signal is processed to determine when the subject is asleep.

[0046] FIG. 4 gives an example of how to combine the I and Q signals obtained from the biomotion sensor. In this example, a technique called phase demodulation is employed. This is due to the fact that I signal 401 and Q signal 402 are not linearly correlated with the position of the moving subject, but rather represent the phase of the reflected signal. To compensate for this effect, the arcsine of the I channel, the arccosine of the Q channel and the arctangent of the I/Q ratio are calculated. This results in three potential output signals-one of these is chosen by calculating the overall amplitude of the signal, its signal-to-noise ratio, and its shape. The demodulated signal may then be low pass filtered to give the final respiratory movement signal 403. This process is only applied when the I and Q signals are believed to represent primarily respiratory movement.

[0047] FIGS. 5A and 5B gives examples of breathing patterns measured in people suffering from chronic disease. FIG. 5A gives an illustration of what is known as Cheyne-Stokes respiration or periodic breathing. In this type of breathing the person's respiratory effort increases and decreases periodically, with a time scale of 30-90 seconds, typically. It is caused by an instability in the control of the relative amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, and is commonly seen in patients with heart failure. FIG. 5B shows an example of another respiratory event seen in chronic disease—an obstructive apnea. In an obstructive apnea, the person's respiratory effort is diminished for 10-20 seconds, before breathing recommences.

[0048] FIG. 6 is an illustration of a method for recognizing an apnea or hypopnea event from a respiratory signal, or set of signals. FIG. 6 shows that the non-contact biomotion sensor returns two signals associated with respiratory movement. These are the so-called I and Q quadrature signals. They may be generated by using radio-frequency pulses whose carrier waves are 90 degrees out of phase. The purpose of this is to smooth out the sensitivity response of the system. The I and Q channels both capture the respiratory movement, but with different amplitudes and phases. In order to obtain an “average” breathing signal, we combine the signals to form a single respiratory effort signal, R(t). One means to do this is to calculate

R(t)=√{square root over (I.sup.2(t)+Q.sup.2(t))},

where I(t) and Q(t) represent the sampled values of the I and Q signals respectively. The envelope of this combined signal can then be obtained using a number of methods, for example, a “peak detect and hold” method, or a method using a Hilbert transform.

[0049] This respiratory envelope signal can then be processed to recognize apnea and hypopneas. As a specific embodiment, consider the results shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. The respiratory envelope signal has been normalized over a period of multiple minutes, and its value is then shown over time. Using pre-established (or adaptive) rules, the amplitude of the respiratory envelope signal is compared to a number of thresholds. For example, in this case, if the amplitude stays above 0.7, breathing is considered normal. If the envelope stays between 0.2 and 0.7 for more than 10 seconds, then a hypopnea event is calculated. If the envelope dips below 0.2 for 10 seconds, then the event is considered an apnea. The person skilled in the art will realize that the exact rules will depend upon clinical definitions of apnea and hypopnea (which may vary from region to region), and the processing methods used for normalization and envelope extraction. In this way, specific events and their start and end times can be established. For example, FIG. 7A shows a hypopnea event which started at time t=18 s, and finished at t=31 s. FIG. 7B shows an apnea event which started at time t=32 s and ended at t=49 s.

[0050] An apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is then calculated by counting the number of average number of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep (for example, if a person has 64 apneas, 102 hypopneas, and sleeps for 6.3 hrs, then their AHI is 166/6.3=26.3). This is an important parameter in assessing the overall status of the subject with chronic disease.

[0051] It is also important in many chronic diseases to monitor episodes of periodic breathing (an example of which is shown in FIG. 5A). One embodiment of a method for detecting periodic breathing episodes may be implemented is as follows. The envelope of the respiratory signal is calculated as discussed in the previous paragraphs. FIG. 8A shows the respiratory envelope as a function of time over a period of approximately 5 minutes during which periodic breathing is present. The periodic breathing appears as a increase and decrease of the respiratory envelope over a time scale of about 80 seconds in this example.

[0052] FIG. 8C shows a similar time period for the respiratory envelope during which no periodic breathing occurs. In order to recognize the periodic breathing episode, the power spectral density of the envelope signal for the 5-minute period is calculated. This is shown in FIG. 8B for the periodic breathing signal, and in FIG. 8D for the normal breathing segment. The periodic breathing will cause a significant modulation of the envelope at frequencies between 0.01 and 0.03 Hz approximately (i.e., characteristic time scales of 33 to 100 s). A threshold algorithm can then be used to determine whether the modulation is sufficient to be considered a periodic breathing episode. The 5 minute period can then be marked as a periodic breathing segment. In this way episodes of periodic breathing are determined. The total number of 5-minute segments so identified can be used to estimate the duration of periodic breathing. The person skilled in the art will realize that the exact rules for determining periodic breathing (Cheyne-Stokes respiration) will depend upon clinical definitions of periodic breathing (which vary from region to region), and the processing methods used for normalization, spectral density estimation and envelope extraction.

[0053] In this way, the total duration of periodic breathing per night can be determined, e.g., a person might have 22 minutes of periodic breathing in total on a particular night.

[0054] Monitoring the respiration rate itself is also an important parameter in chronic disease monitoring. For example, in acute respiratory failure the respiration rate can rise over 30 breaths/minute in adults, from a more typical baseline of 15 or 16 breaths/minute. One technique for tracking the respiratory rate during the night is as follows, as illustrated in FIG. 9A. For the case of a respiratory effort signal obtained from the non-contact sensor discussed earlier, a sliding window is applied to the data (e.g., 30 seconds in length). The power spectral density is then calculated for that epoch (FIG. 9B), using techniques such as the averaged periodogram. The power spectral density will typically contain a peak corresponding to the breathing frequency somewhere between 0.1 and 0.5 Hz This peak can be identified by using a peak-finding algorithm. In some cases, there may be excessive motion artifact on the data—in such a case a technique such as Lomb's periodogram can be used to estimate the power spectral density (this interpolates through missing data). Alternatively, the respiratory effort signal can be fit with a model using Auto Regressive or Auto Regressive Moving Average techniques. The model parameters can then be used to estimate the respiration frequency. Kalman filtering techniques can also be employed. In this way, an average respiration frequency for the time window can be obtained. The sliding window can then advance by 1 or more seconds. In this way, a time series of the respiration frequency can be build up over the night. A simple average respiration for the night can be obtained by averaging over this time series for the night. Alternatively, more complex measurements of respiratory frequency can be calculated such as median frequency, variance of the respiratory frequency, percentile distributions of the respiratory frequency, and auto-correlation of the respiratory frequency.

[0055] FIG. 10 shows an example of the calculated characteristic modulation periods in subjects with sleep apnea, using the signals obtained from a biomotion sensor, as compared to the periods calculated using the full respiratory effort and airflow signals obtained from a polysomnogram. This characteristic modulation period of Cheyne-Stokes respiration may have prognostic significance, as it is related to the circulation time. Circulation time refers to approximately the time it takes for blood to circulate throughout the complete cardiac system. It can be estimated by using the total circulating blood volume (Volume-liters) and cardiac output (CO, Volume/time—typically in liters/minute), so that the circulation time (CT) can be calculated as (blood volume/cardiac output). In normal adults, CT is typically about 20 seconds. Increases in central blood volume and/or reductions in cardiac output lead to a prolongation of circulation time. Increases in the circulation time cause feedback delay between the lungs and carotid chemoreceptors. When the circulation time in prolonged, it will take longer for ventilatory disturbances in the lungs to be sensed by the chemoreceptors. This delay leads to over- and undershooting of ventilation, and a periodic breathing pattern of the central or Cheyne-Stokes type. So in that manner, calculating the modulation period of Cheyne-Stokes respiration provides insight into the overall circulation time.

[0056] FIG. 11 shows an example of the agreement level between the estimated Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI) of subjects using an algorithm based on the signals obtained from the sensor in FIG. 2, versus “gold standard” respiratory measurements using clinical polysomnogram measurements. This is based on measurements from 85 nights, and shows a high level of agreement. AHI is known to have prognostic significance in subjects with heart failure.

[0057] Variations in nocturnal heart rate can also play an important role in determining a person's overall disease status. In an ideal scenario, the person's heart rate would be monitored in a simple non-intrusive fashion. In one implementation of the system, the non-contact biomotion sensor is used to also monitor the ballistocardiogram (the mechanical movement of the person's chest due to the beating heart). In FIG. 12, the signals measured using the non-contact biomotion sensor are pictured. A heart rate signal has been obtained by bandpass filtering of the received movement signal. Individual pulses are visible (see the fourth row of FIG. 12)—these can be compared with the pulses observed by a pulse oximeter (fifth row of FIG. 12). The average heart rate can be calculated by taking the power spectral density of the heart beat signal and looking for a peak in the range 45 to 120 beats per minute. In this case, the heart rate is about 55 beats per minute. The average nocturnal heart rate can be calculated by simple averaging of the measured heart rate over the time period from falling asleep to waking up. This heart rate can be determined from the non-contact sensor mentioned above, or other mechanisms such as a pulse oximeter, a chest band heart rate monitor, a clinical ECG, or a ballistocardiogram obtained from a pressure sensitive or charge sensitive mat.

[0058] Prediction of clinical deterioration can then be obtained by using a predictive algorithm based on a classifier engine. The classifier can be rule-based, or a trained classifier such as a linear discriminant or logistic discriminant classifier model. In FIG. 13A, an exemplary embodiment of a rule-based classifier is shown. Various decisions are possible based on measurements from the patient, e.g., initiate a nurse call, monitor data more closely tomorrow, no-action, etc. These decisions are reached by applying rules to the measured data, and data that had been previously collected for that patient (or from other similar patients). Demographic information such as age and sex can form part of the previous data associated with that subject. For example, in FIG. 13A we show how the presence of two defined symptoms will always initiate a nurse call (e.g., the symptom questions might be “do you feel breathless” and “do you feel worse than yesterday”). In the absence of symptoms, the next rule to be applied could be to check if there has been a significant weight gain. If so, that could then initiate a check to see if there has been significant periodic breathing—if so then a nurse call will be made. The person skilled in the art will realize that these rules can be derived heuristically or using a number of machine learning algorithms

[0059] An alternative embodiment of the decision making process could be to use a more statistically based approach such as a classifier based on linear, logistic or quadratic discriminant as shown in FIG. 13B. In these approaches, the data from the respiration signal 1301 and cardiac signal 1302 is used to generate features (for example, the respiration features could be average nocturnal respiration rate, percentage of periodic breathing, variance of the respiration, etc.). Symptom input can be mapped to 0 or 1 (where 1 is a “yes” and 0 is a “no”). For example, the answer to the question “do you feel breathless” could map to a 0 or 1 and input as element 1303. The answer to the question “do you feel worse than yesterday” could map to element 1304. The answer to the question “did you use more than one pillow” could map to element 1305. Analog measurements such as weight or blood pressure could also be used to generate a “point” feature. Measurements from previous nights' recordings, and demographic features can also be included. The features from the various sources are then combined into a single vector X. The vector is then multiplied by a linear vector a, to produce a discriminant value c. This value is compared to a threshold to make a decision. The distance from the threshold can also be used to generate a posterior probability for a decision.

[0060] As a specific embodiment of a statistically based classifier, consider the exemplar where the feature vector X is composed as follows:

X=[AVERAGE RESPIRATORY RATE

[0061] Δ(AVERAGE RESPIRATORY RATE) compared to AVG. OF LAST 5 NIGHTS

[0062] 90th PERCENTILE VALUE OF RESPIRATORY RATE

[0063] VARIANCE OF RESPIRATORY RATE

[0064] AVERAGE HEART RATE

[0065] Δ(AVERAGE HEART RATE) compared to AVERAGE OF LAST 5 NIGHTS

[0066] 90th PERCENTILE VALUE OF HEART RATE

[0067] Δ(WEIGHT) compared to AVERAGE OF LAST 5 NIGHTS

[0068] RESPONSE TO “DO YOU FEEL BREATHLESS” (0 or 1)

[0069] RESPONSE TO “DO YOU FEEL WORSE THAN YESTERDAY” (0 or 1)

[0070] RESPONSE TO “DO YOU FEEL BREATHLESS WHEN LYING DOWN” (0 or 1)

[0071] AGE

[0072] GENDER (MALE=1, FEMALE=0)]

[0073] In this case, the feature vector has 13 elements. The linear row vector μ may take on the values

[1.4 3.1 0.8 1.2 1.3 2.4 0.9 3.2 4.1 2.5 3.4 0.1 0.2].
The values for a can be determined in a number of ways. One technique for calculating useful values of the parameters is to use a training data set of measurements and previous outcomes, and then optimize the parameters to most correctly predict the recorded outcomes. Note that the values of .alpha. will differ for different diseases. They may also vary across different patient groups, or even for individual patients. The feature vector X will also typically vary with disease category and patient group.

[0074] Based on data recorded from a specific night monitoring a patient, the product of .alpha.X might provide a discriminant value of c=34.7. This could be compared to a threshold of 30, where c>30 indicates clinical deterioration. The distance from the threshold represents the confidence of the decision that clinical deterioration has happened (e.g., if c=40, we are more confident that the person has clinical deterioration than if the value of c is only 31).

[0075] A person skilled in the art will realize that the values of the feature vector X can be obtained through prior training on a database of known values and outcomes, or can be made into an adaptive self-training algorithm.

[0076] FIG. 14 shows an example of how the system may be used in the monitoring of a chronic disease. In this case, a person with heart failure is being monitored over a 90 day period. In this case, the subject is monitored using a respiratory sensor, a weighing scales and a device for measuring heart rate over some or all of the night. For each night of recording, the following parameters are recorded: (a) weight upon waking and after going to the bathroom (so called “dry weight”), (b) an estimated Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI), (c) a periodic breathing index, and (d) an average nocturnal heart rate. Changes in these parameters can then be used to predict clinical events. For illustration, we have shown typical clinical events which were tracked in the development of the system—office visits to the heart failure clinic, and unscheduled calls to the nurse. The clinical prediction algorithms illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B are used to predict occurrences of events which require a nurse call.

[0077] FIG. 15 shows data obtained from two patients monitored over a n approximate 3-week period using the non-contact biomotion sensor shown in FIG. 2. It illustrates that the AHI does not vary significantly—this is consistent with the stable status of these subjects' heart failure during the trial period. The only exception is night 9 for subject 1 in which the AHI jumps to approximately 18 from a baseline of 5-10. This may have been due to a temporary worsening of symptoms due to excessive salt intake, or poor sleeping position, for example.

STATEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0078] The apparatus, system and method of this disclosure finds utility in monitoring of subjects with chronic disease. In particular, it can be used to measure changes in clinical status which can be used as part of a clinical decision process.