PediaPod: A new technique for estimating respiratory rates in preterm infants

Most very preterm infants experience apneas of prematurity. It is a common comorbidity of prematurity, and therefore reliable real-time monitoring of respiratory rates is key in these infants. The conventional method is to use chest impedance measured with electrodes on the surface of the thorax. However, this method is known to be unreliable, as it is prone to motion artifacts. For this reason, indirect measurements such as oxygen desaturation or bradycardia are often necessary to identify apneas. In this episode of the Pediatric Research PediaPod, we meet this month's featured Early Career Investigator, Dr. Kirsten Jost at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She describes a recent study of a novel technique using a commercially available nasogastric feeding tube that measures esophageal signals and uses customized software to identify the respiratory rate of non-ventilated preterm infants. Read the article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-021-01748-4