Design of direct early detection device of Apnea for Preterm babies

Abstract

Apnea in preterm babies is the cessation of breath for a short period usually between 6-15 seconds resulting from undeveloped lungs and respiratory centre. It is the cause of most primary disorders like cerebral palsy, sensory defects and respiratory illness. Detecting and monitoring apnea in developing countries like Ghana is usually through indirect methods. These methods give results that are normally too late for the resuscitation to revive the baby. In this paper, we designed a cost effective direct apnea detecting system at a very early stage by following the engineering principles. The system comprises of a signal acquisition unit, a central processing system and a display unit, a power source and an alert system coupled with a storage functionality. The system acquired temperature using silicon bandgap sensor LM 35 and breathing rate signal using force sensitive resistor FSR. The breathing rate signal was analyzed using MATLAB. The system followed an operational logic which is incorporated into the programming of the microcontroller. A prototype of the device was fabricated, with wood used as the casing. The device was tested on a normal adult and the temperature and breathing rate were displayed on an LCD screen.