Monitoring the temperature of the newborn through a wireless device with an alert system: development and proof of concept

• Autor(a) principal: Wagner Bento de Magalhães
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Rodney do Nascimento Guimarães, Elaine Alvarenga de Almeida Carvalho, Zilma Silveira Nogueira Reis
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34117/bjdv7n8-432; http://hdl.handle.net/1843/56839; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1707-8715; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6374-9295
• topic: Infant; Newborn; Monitoring; Skin temperature; Hypothermia; Wireless technology; Lactente; Recém-nascido; Temperatura cutânea; Hipotermia; Hipertermia; Estudo de prova de conceito; Tecnologia sem fio

Introduction: The maintenance of the newborn temperature is one of the most relevant factors for his survival. Maintaining thermal control prevents several complications related to hypothermia and hyperthermia and reduces the chance of dying from different causes. Temperature monitoring systems are common in neonatal intensive care units. However, outside of this environment, the detection of hypothermia is still a challenge. Objective: The objective of the study is to develop a prototype neonatal temperature monitoring system to alert thermal uncontrolled. Method: In an observational cohort study, the temperature of 21 newborns was monitored in a conventional manner and by a new monitoring system under test. All were born with a gestational age above 35 weeks, healthy and were accommodated in a joint accommodation ward, in a public university maternity hospital. To this end, a prototype system consisting of a temperature sensor, a Wi-Fi emitter and a data collection and processing center was developed. The value measured bythe prototype was hidden, as well as the warnings of thermal uncontrolled. The reliability of the temperature sensor was evaluated in an experiment that compared measurements made by the sensor with that of a conventional thermometer.In a real scenario, the temperature sensor was affixed to the skin of the newborn's infra-axillary region, the temperature being automatically measured every 10 minutes. The performance of the prototype was evaluated by comparing the episodes of thermal uncontrolled detected by the two measurement techniques, in relation to the closest pair of measures.The total set of measurements of the prototype was also analyzed. Hypothermia was characterized by temperature < 36.5ºC and hyperthermia > 37.5ºC.The Kappa concordance analysis compared the results of the two measurement modes. Results: The temperature measured by the prototype sensor and the conventional digital thermometer had an intraclass correlation coefficient = 1. In the care scenario, the average time to monitor the temperature of the newborns was 22:36 hours.The difference between the 115 pairs of measures performed by nursing in relation to those recorded by the prototype averaged 0.014 ºC (SD = 0.14). Comparing the measurement pairs, hypothermia was detected by nursingin 14 (66.7%) newborns and by the prototype in 15 (71.5%) newborns, Kappa index = 0.889.When all measurements performed by the real-time monitoring system were considered, hypothermia was recorded in 520/2809 (28.8%) measurements, while by the intermittent mode, hypothermia was recorded in 30/115 (26.8%).There were three episodes of hypothermia or hyperthermia detected by the new device, at times not monitored by nursing. Conclusions: Temperature monitoring by a computerized system detected more thermal abnormalities than the conventional method. The developed prototype demonstrated its potential to offer continuous and simultaneous monitoring to a group of newborns hospitalized in a maternity unit.