• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.376-384
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• 2013

With the continuous aging of the populations in developed countries, the medical requirements of the aged are expected to increase. In this paper, a ring-type pulse oximeter finger sensor and a 24-hour ambulatory heart rate monitoring system for the aged are presented. We also demonstrate the feasibility of extracting accurate heart rate variability measurements from photoelectric plethysmography signals gathered using a ring-type pulse oximeter sensor attached to the finger. We designed the heart rate sensor using a CPU with built-in ZigBee stack for simplicity and low power consumption. We also analyzed the various distorted signals caused by motion artifacts using a FFT, and designed an algorithm using a least squares estimator to calibrate the signals for better accuracy.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1109-1115
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• 2008

In the ubiquitous health monitoring environments, it is quite important not only to evaluate the physiological health condition but also mental stress condition. In order to achieve this goal, a heart activity monitoring system utilizing a wearable bipolar electrode is devised and the heart rate variability(HRV) is extracted and interpreted in both frequency and time feature domains. Consequently, to evaluate the emotional stress condition of the subjects, a stress-induced experimental protocol was applied to healthy subjects and the time and frequency features of heart activity were analyzed in terms of the ratio of low frequency components v.s., high frequency components and the relevant the moving average distributions compromising the successive RR peaks intervals in the ambulatory ECG measurement system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.235-242
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• 1991

This research has reported that the selection and assessment of treatment in anxiety disorders depend to a large extend on patient reports of somatic symptomatology. However, the correspondence between such reports and actual physiological data Is unknown as the physiological measures used were taken in laboratory. The purpose of the ambulatory momboring device is, therefore, to present for analysis physiological data derived from the sub jects during their daily activities. The physiological parameters of interest are heart rate, respiratory rate, skin conductance level/response, skin temperature, and activity level. This device had an microcomputer based data acquisition unit, Interfaced to it for the purpose of data collection. The data is collected usually over a period of 12 hours. The data from the ambulatory monitoring device can be used to assess the psychophysiology of anxiety in the field. The data from the device will also reveal if patients who report different sets of symptoms differ physiologically too. Thls will help physicians for the right kind of treatment and also solve the many uncertainties that have existed thus far in quantizing anxiety.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.99-107
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• 1989

24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring has been examined for the evaluation of heart rate and longest pause in 34 patients with chronic atrial fibrillation(20 patients treated with digoxin and 14 patients without treatment). Following results were obtained : 1. In 34 patients, the mean of average heart rates was $75.7{\pm}13.8$/minute, fastest heart rates $148.0{\pm}32.4$/minute, slowest heart rates $48.1{\pm}8.4$/minute, difference between fastest and slowest heart rates in individual patients $99.9{\pm}29.0$/minute and longest pauses $2.95{\pm}1.06$seconds. The longest pauses of more than 4.0 seconds occurred in 4 of the 34 patients and made an exeption of comparison groups. 2. In 27 of the 34 patients, ventricular premature contractures were developed and in 11 of 27, mainly occured less than 100/24 hours and aberrant conduction occurred in all patients. 3. In 20 patients treated with digoxin(0.25mg/day), the mean of average heart rates was $78.4{\pm}13.7$/minute, fastest heart rates $152.5{\pm}33.1$/minute, slowest heart rates $48.9{\pm}8.5$/minute, difference between fastest and slowest heart rates in individual patients $103.6{\pm}31.7$/minute and longest pauses $2.55{\pm}0.50$seconds. 4. In 10 patients without treatment, the mean of average heart rates was $78.0{\pm}10.7$/minute, fastest heart rates $154.5{\pm}26.8$/minute, slowest heart rates $50.6{\pm}7.1$/minute, difference between fastest and slowest heart rates in individual patients $103.9{\pm}22.2$/minute and longest pauses $2.66{\pm}0.39$seconds. 5. The difference of heart rates and longest pauses between patients with treatment and without treatment were statistically not significant(P>0.05). In summary, authors seemed to consider that 24-hour ambulatory ECG was useful and safe method for clinical evaluation of patients with chronic atrial fibrillation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.192-199
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• 2015

Background: Overweight, obesity, and cardiovascular disease risk factors are prevalent among firefighters in some developed countries. It is unclear whether physical activity and cardiopulmonary fitness reduce cardiovascular disease risk and the cardiovascular workload at work in firefighters. The present study investigated the relationship between leisure-time physical activity, cardiopulmonary fitness, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and cardiovascular workload at work in firefighters in Hong Kong. Methods: Male firefighters (n = 387) were randomly selected from serving firefighters in Hong Kong (n = 5,370) for the assessment of cardiovascular disease risk factors (obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, smoking, known cardiovascular diseases). One-third (Target Group) were randomly selected for the assessment of off-duty leisure-time physical activity using the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Maximal oxygen uptake was assessed, as well as cardiovascular workload using heart rate monitoring for each firefighter for four "normal" 24-hour working shifts and during real-situation simulated scenarios. Results: Overall, 33.9% of the firefighters had at least two cardiovascular disease risk factors. In the Target Group, firefighters who had higher leisure-time physical activity had a lower resting heart rate and a lower average working heart rate, and spent a smaller proportion of time working at a moderate-intensity cardiovascular workload. Firefighters who had moderate aerobic fitness and high leisure-time physical activity had a lower peak working heart rate during the mountain rescue scenario compared with firefighters who had low leisure-time physical activities. Conclusion: Leisure-time physical activity conferred significant benefits during job tasks of moderate cardiovascular workload in firefighters in Hong Kong.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.283-291
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• 2018

Objectives: To identify the current status of smartphone usage and to describe the needs for smartphone-based cardiac telerehabilitation of cardiac patients. Methods: In 2016, a questionnaire survey was conducted in a supervised ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program in a university affiliated hospital with the participation of heart failure or heart transplantation patients who were smartphone users. The questionnaire included questions regarding smartphone usage, demands for smartphone-based disease education, and home health monitoring systems. Results were described and analyzed according to principal diagnosis. Results: Ninety-six patients (66% male; mean age, $5{\pm}11$ years), including 56 heart failure and 40 heart transplantation patients, completed the survey (completion rate, 95%). The median daily smartphone usage time was 120 minutes (interquartile range, 60-300), and the most frequently used smartphone function was text messaging (61.5%). Of the patients, 26% stated that they searched for health-related information using their smartphones more than 1 time per week. The major source of health-related information was Internet browsing (50.0%), and the least sought source was the hospital's website (3.1%). Patients with heart failure expressed significantly higher needs for disease education on treatment plan, home health monitoring of blood pressure, and body weight (${\chi}^2=5.79$, 6.27, 4.50, p < 0.05). Heart transplantation patients expressed a significant need for home health monitoring of body temperature (${\chi}^2=5.25$, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Heart failure and heart transplantation patients show high usage of and interest in mobile health technology. A smartphone-based cardiac telerehabilitation program should be developed based on high demand areas and modified to suit to each principal diagnosis.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the effect of shift work on diurnal blood pressure (BP) pattern in nurses. Method: We studied 20 healthy nurses engaged in 3 shift work. 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring was performed to each nurse two times during the day and night shift. Five nurses were excluded because of inadequate BP measurement. Results: All subjects were female. The mean age was 27.4 years (range: 23-33 years) and mean body mass index was 19.7 Kg/$m^2$ (range: 18.0-21.2 Kg/$m^2$). The changes of systolic BP ($17.8{\pm}9.1$ vs. $13.2{\pm}4.7%$, p=0.031), diastolic BP ($22.3{\pm}8.7$ vs. $17.3{\pm}9.0%$, p=0.061), and heart rate ($25.2{\pm}5.2$ vs. $12.5{\pm}8.7%$, p=0.001) during the sleeping period were decreased after a night shift compared with day shift. The non-dipper group significantly increased from 20% to 40% after a night shift (p=0.018). Conclusion: Working night shift is significantly associated with non-dipper status in nurses.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.11c
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• pp.328-330
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• 2004

In this paper, ECG based cardiac disease diagnosis models are developed. Conventionally, ECG monitoring equipments can only measure and store ECG signals and they always require medical doctor's diagnosis actions which are not desirable for continuous ambulatory monitoring and diagnosis healthcare systems. In this paper, two kinds of neural based self cardiac disease diagnosis engines are developed and tested for four kinds of diseases, sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, left bundle branch block and right bundle branch block. For diagnosis engines, error backpropagation neural network (BP) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) were applied. Five signal features including heart rate, QRS interval, PR interval, QT interval, and T wave types were selected for diagnosis characteristics. To show the validity of proposed diagnosis engine, MIT-BIH database were used to test. Test results showed that BP based diagnosis engine has 71% of diagnosis accuracy which is superior to accuracy of PNN based diagnosis engine. However, PNN based diagnosis engine showed superior diagnosis accuracy for complex-disease diagnoses than BP based diagnosis engine.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.222-231
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• 1999

Uwhangchungsimwon(UC) has been used in the treatment of a wide variety of conditions including stroke, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, autonomic imbalance, mental instablity, etc in Korean traditional hospitals, In particular it is often initialy chosen for emergency care of acute stroke. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of UC on cerebral hemodynamics. Using transcranial Doppler ultrasound, we studied changes of mean flow velocity and pulsatility index(PI) of middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) from 11 health young volunteers who were administrated with 1 pill UC and 11 health controls who were not. We obtained hypercapnia with breath-holding and evaluated cerebrovascular reactivity with breath-holding index(BHI). Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate were measured using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring(ABPM). In UC administration group, the evaluation was performed during basal condition. and repeated at 20, 40, and 60 min after administration. In controls, the evaluation was performed at corresponding time intervals. Mean flow velocity in middle cerebral artery, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate did not change during the observation period and were not different between these two groups. However, administration of UC was associated with decreases in PI by $3.6{\sim}12.4%$ in BHI by $17.9{\sim}24.8%$ compared with pre-administration period. Decreases in PI and BHI with UC were significantly different compared with control group (p<0.05). These results indicate that UC decreases PI and BHI in cerebral artery, which is due to a dilation of cerebral resistance vessels.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5849-5859
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to find out the impact of age and hypertensive status on postprandial hypotension(PPH). Twenty-six hypertensive elderly ($77.7{\pm}7.2$ years old), twenty-five normotensive elderly ($80.2{\pm}6.8$ years old) and twenty-six young adults ($20.0{\pm}1.5$ years old) took part in the study. The blood pressure (BP) and heart rates (HR) were measured every 15 minutes, from 30 minutes before a meal to 90 minute after a meal in sitting position, using an ambulatory blood pressure monitor. In the hypertensive group, postprandial reduction in systolic BP continued from 30minutes to 90minutes. The reductuion rate of systolic BP of hypertensive elderly group was significantly greater than other groups (p<.05). However, there were no significant differences in trend of HR change between the groups (p=.082). The incidence of PPH was significantly higher in the hypertensives than other groups (73.1% vs 24% vs 0%, respectively, p=.001). In conclusion, age and hypertensive status had a significant impact on PPH. Elderly persons require more intensive BP monitoring and nursing intervention.