3D modeling for realistic assessment of vital signs and lung water content

The Cardiopulmonary Stethoscope (CP-Stethoscope) system is a novel, low-cost, noninvasive microwave-based system for continuous assessment of vital signs such as respiration rate (RR), heart rate (HR) and also changes in lung water content (LWC). Continuous monitoring of these vital signs and in particular, changes in LWC are key to proactive prevention and management of chronic health conditions such as heart failure and lung diseases. Methods to assess LWC are invasive, costly and not suitable for continuous monitoring and to this end; the development of the CP-Stethoscope system is expected to provide unique and significant health care and patient monitoring benefits. The integrated system consists of coplanar waveguide (CPW)-based EM couplers that couples energy into the body, an RF transmission and reflection coefficient subsystem that eliminate bulky network analyzer, and microcontroller unit with DSP capabilities for real time extraction of vital signs from a single microwave measurement. A Bluetooth module has also been implemented to transmit data to a mobile device, and a mobile app has been developed to enable remote monitoring of patients.