A Novel High-Resolution Method for the Respiration Rate and Breathing Waveforms Remote Monitoring

A search for robust noninvasive methods permitting to discern the respiration subtle peculiarities in mammals is a topical issue. A novel approach called “sorption-enhanced infrared thermography” (SEIRT), helping to solve this problem, is described. Its benefits spring from the integration of the infrared thermography (IRT) and chemical physics (phase transition heat release/absorption) within a single method. The SEIRT opportunities were verified in the investigation of 42 humans, 49 rats and 4 minipigs whose breathing waveforms were revealed to the last detail. It is shown that the SEIRT-obtained breathing-conditioned temperature response may exceed 10 °C (!) even in small animals (rats) and that the SEIRT sensitivity is 4.5–250 times higher than that of the matched IRT-based techniques. The new method is validated by a comparison with that based on thorax breathing movement (TBM). It is shown that the SEIRT-determined breaths have a close correlation with those determined via TBM (r = + 1.000, p ≪ 0.05); this is also true for breathing intervals (r = + 0.9772, p ≪ 0.05). SEIRT opens up the way to a high-resolution noncontact quantitative evaluation of respiration rate and breathing waveforms in both humans and animals. It may become a cutting-edge technique in diagnostic medicine and biomedical research.