title: Acoustic breath-phase detection using tracheal breath sounds.
abstract: Current breathing flow estimation methods use tracheal breath sounds, but one step of the process, 'breath phase (inspiration/expiration) detection', is done by either assuming alternating breath phases or using a second acoustic channel of lung sounds. The alternating assumption is unreliable for long recordings, non-breathing events, such as apnea, swallow or cough change the alternating nature of the phases. Using lung sounds intensity requires the addition of a secondary channel and the associated labor. Hence, an automatic and accurate method for breath-phase detection using only tracheal sounds would be of great benefit. We present a method using several breath sound parameters to differentiate between the two respiratory phases. The proposed method is novel and independent of flow level; it requires only one prior- and one post-breath sound segment to identify the phase. The proposed method was tested on data from 93 healthy individuals, without any history of pulmonary diseases breathing at 4 different flow levels. The most prominent features were from the duration, volume and shape of the sound envelope. This method has shown an accuracy of 95.6% with 95.5% sensitivity and 95.6% specificity for breath-phase identification without assuming breath-phase-alteration and/or using any other information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.
authors.forename: Saiful
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huq
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Moussavi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000502:physiology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography / Q000379:methods; D014132:Trachea / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult