Association of remote imaging photoplethysmography and cutaneous perfusion in volunteers.

Remote imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG) senses the cardiac pulse in outer skin layers and is responsive to mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure in critically ill patients. Whether iPPG is sufficiently sensitive to monitor cutaneous perfusion is not known. This study aimed at determining the response of iPPG to changes in cutaneous perfusion measured by  Laser speckle imaging (LSI). Thirty-seven volunteers were engaged in a cognitive test known to evoke autonomic nervous activity and a Heat test. Simultaneous measurements of iPPG and LSI were taken at baseline and during cutaneous perfusion challenges. A perfusion index (PI) was calculated to assess iPPG signal strength. The response of iPPG to the challenges and its relation to LSI were determined. PI of iPPG significantly increased in response to autonomic nervous stimuli and to the Heat test by 5.8% (p = 0.005) and 11.1% (p < 0.001), respectively. PI was associated with LSI measures of cutaneous perfusion throughout experiments (p < 0.001). iPPG responses to study task correlated with those of LSI (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and were comparable among subjects. iPPG is sensitive to autonomic nervous activity in volunteers and is closely associated with cutaneous perfusion.

Remote Photoplethysmographic Assessment of the Peripheral Circulation in Critical Care Patients Recovering From Cardiac Surgery.

PURPOSE: Camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG) remotely detects the volume pulse of cardiac ejection in the peripheral circulation. The cbPPG signal is sourced from the cutaneous microcirculation, yields a 2-dimensional intensity map, and is therefore an interesting monitoring technique. In this study, we investigated whether cbPPG is in general sufficiently sensitive to discern hemodynamic conditions. METHODS: cbPPG recordings of 70 patients recovering from cardiac surgery were analyzed. Photoplethysmograms were processed offline and the optical pulse power (OPP) of cardiac ejection was calculated. Hemodynamic data, image intensity, and patient movements were recorded synchronously. The effects of hemodynamic parameters and measurement conditions on the patient's individual OPP variability and their actual OPP values were calculated in mixed-effects regression models. RESULTS: Mean arterial pressure (MAP), pulse pressure (PP), heart rate (HR), and central venous pressure (CVP) significantly explained the individual OPP variability. PP had the highest explanatory power (19.9%). Averaged OPP significantly increased with PP and MAP (P < 0.001, respectively) and decreased with higher HR (P = 0.024). CVP had a 2-directional, nonsignificant effect on averaged OPP. Image intensity and patient movements did significantly affect OPP. After adjustment for hemodynamic covariables and measurement conditions, the effect of PP and HR remained unchanged, whereas that of MAP vanished. CONCLUSION: cbPPG is sensitive to hemodynamic parameters in critical care patients. It is a potential application for monitoring the peripheral circulation. Its value in a clinical setting has to be determined.

Cardiovascular assessment by imaging photoplethysmography - a review.

Over the last few years, the contactless acquisition of cardiovascular parameters using cameras has gained immense attention. The technique provides an optical means to acquire cardiovascular information in a very convenient way. This review provides an overview on the technique's background and current realizations. Besides giving detailed information on the most widespread application of the technique, namely the contactless acquisition of heart rate, we outline further concepts and we critically discuss the current state.

Camera-based photoplethysmography in an intraoperative setting.

BACKGROUND: Camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG) is a measurement technique which enables remote vital sign monitoring by using cameras. To obtain valid plethysmograms, proper regions of interest (ROIs) have to be selected in the video data. Most automated selection methods rely on specific spatial or temporal features limiting a broader application. In this work, we present a new method which overcomes those drawbacks and, therefore, allows cbPPG to be applied in an intraoperative environment. METHODS: We recorded 41 patients during surgery using an RGB and a near-infrared (NIR) camera. A Bayesian skin classifier was employed to detect suitable regions, and a level set segmentation approach to define and track ROIs based on spatial homogeneity. RESULTS: The results show stable and homogeneously illuminated ROIs. We further evaluated their quality with regards to extracted cbPPG signals. The green channel provided the best results where heart rates could be correctly estimated in 95.6% of cases. The NIR channel yielded the highest contribution in compensating false estimations. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method proved that cbPPG is applicable in intraoperative environments. It can be easily transferred to other settings regardless of which body site is considered.

The value of polarization in camera-based photoplethysmography.

Camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG) is a novel measuring technique that permits the remote acquisition of cardiovascular signals using video cameras. Research still lacks in fundamental studies to reach a deeper technical and physiological understanding. This work analyzes the employment of polarization filtration to (i) assess the gain for the signal quality and (ii) draw conclusions about the cbPPG signal's origin. We evaluated various forehead regions of 18 recordings with different color and filter settings. Our results prove that for an optimal illumination, the perpendicular filter setting provides a significant benefit. The outcome supports the theory that signals arise from blood volume changes. For lateral illumination, ballistocardiographic effects dominate the signal as polarization's impact vanishes.

Assessment of blind source separation techniques for video-based cardiac pulse extraction.

Blind source separation (BSS) aims at separating useful signal content from distortions. In the contactless acquisition of vital signs by means of the camera-based photoplethysmogram (cbPPG), BSS has evolved the most widely used approach to extract the cardiac pulse. Despite its frequent application, there is no consensus about the optimal usage of BSS and its general benefit. This contribution investigates the performance of BSS to enhance the cardiac pulse from cbPPGs in dependency to varying input data characteristics. The BSS input conditions are controlled by an automated spatial preselection routine of regions of interest. Input data of different characteristics (wavelength, dominant frequency, and signal quality) from 18 postoperative cardiovascular patients are processed with standard BSS techniques, namely principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA). The effect of BSS is assessed by the spectral signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the cardiac pulse. The preselection of cbPPGs, appears beneficial providing higher SNR compared to standard cbPPGs. Both, PCA and ICA yielded better outcomes by using monochrome inputs (green wavelength) instead of inputs of different wavelengths. PCA outperforms ICA for more homogeneous input signals. Moreover, for high input SNR, the application of ICA using standard contrast is likely to decrease the SNR.