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International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2019The effects of forest activities on health promotion have received increasing attention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological and psychological... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
The effects of forest activities on health promotion have received increasing attention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological and psychological effects of brief walks in forests on young women. The experiments were conducted in 6 forests (test) and 6 city areas (control). Overall, 12 participants in each area (60 participants in total, mean age: 21.0 ± 1.3 years) were instructed to walk in a forest and a city area for approximately 15 min; simultaneously, their heart rate variability, heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse rate were measured to quantify their physiological responses to walking. The modified semantic differential method, Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the State⁻Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to determine their psychological responses. Walking in a forest was associated with significantly higher parasympathetic nervous activity and lower sympathetic nervous activity and heart rate. In addition, scores for the comfortable, relaxed, and natural parameters and vigor subscale of POMS were significantly higher, whereas scores for negative feelings, such as tension⁻anxiety, depression⁻dejection, anger⁻hostility, fatigue, and confusion, were significantly lower, as were the total mood disturbance of POMS and the anxiety dimension of the STAI. The subjective evaluations were generally in accordance with the physiological responses. A brief walk in a forest resulted in physiological and psychological relaxation effects in young women.
Topics: Adult; Anxiety; Blood Pressure; Cities; Depression; Emotions; Fatigue; Female; Forests; Health Promotion; Heart Rate; Humans; Relaxation; Walking; Young Adult
PubMed: 30650572
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16020229 -
Scientific Reports Oct 2019Owing to the diversity of pulse-wave morphology, pulse-based diagnosis is difficult, especially pulse-wave-pattern classification (PWPC). A powerful method for PWPC is a...
Owing to the diversity of pulse-wave morphology, pulse-based diagnosis is difficult, especially pulse-wave-pattern classification (PWPC). A powerful method for PWPC is a convolutional neural network (CNN). It outperforms conventional methods in pattern classification due to extracting informative abstraction and features. For previous PWPC criteria, the relationship between pulse and disease types is not clear. In order to improve the clinical practicability, there is a need for a CNN model to find the one-to-one correspondence between pulse pattern and disease categories. In this study, five cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and complications were extracted from medical records as classification criteria to build pulse data set 1. Four physiological parameters closely related to the selected diseases were also extracted as classification criteria to build data set 2. An optimized CNN model with stronger feature extraction capability for pulse signals was proposed, which achieved PWPC with 95% accuracy in data set 1 and 89% accuracy in data set 2. It demonstrated that pulse waves are the result of multiple physiological parameters. There are limitations when using a single physiological parameter to characterise the overall pulse pattern. The proposed CNN model can achieve high accuracy of PWPC while using CVD and complication categories as classification criteria.
Topics: Cardiovascular Diseases; Datasets as Topic; Feasibility Studies; Heart Rate; Humans; Neural Networks, Computer; Traditional Pulse Diagnosis
PubMed: 31624300
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51334-2 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2023In the post-covid19 era, every new wave of the pandemic causes an increased concern/interest among the masses to learn more about their state of well-being. Therefore,...
In the post-covid19 era, every new wave of the pandemic causes an increased concern/interest among the masses to learn more about their state of well-being. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to come up with ubiquitous, low-cost, non-invasive tools for rapid and continuous monitoring of body vitals that reflect the status of one's overall health. In this backdrop, this work proposes a deep learning approach to turn a smartphone-the popular hand-held personal gadget-into a diagnostic tool to measure/monitor the three most important body vitals, i.e., pulse rate (PR), blood oxygen saturation level (aka SpO2), and respiratory rate (RR). Furthermore, we propose another method that could extract a single-lead electrocardiograph (ECG) of the subject. The proposed methods include the following core steps: subject records a small video of his/her fingertip by placing his/her finger on the rear camera of the smartphone, and the recorded video is pre-processed to extract the filtered and/or detrended video-photoplethysmography (vPPG) signal, which is then fed to custom-built convolutional neural networks (CNN), which eventually spit-out the vitals (PR, SpO2, and RR) as well as a single-lead ECG of the subject. To be precise, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (1) estimation of the three body vitals (PR, SpO2, RR) from the vPPG data using custom-built CNNs, vision transformer, and most importantly by CLIP model (a popular image-caption-generator model); (2) a novel discrete cosine transform+feedforward neural network-based method that translates the recorded video-PPG signal to a single-lead ECG signal. The significance of this work is twofold: (i) it allows rapid self-testing of body vitals (e.g., self-monitoring for covid19 symptoms), (ii) it enables rapid self-acquisition of a single-lead ECG, and thus allows early detection of atrial fibrillation (abormal heart beat or arrhythmia), which in turn could enable early intervention in response to a range of cardiovascular diseases, and could help save many precious lives. Our work could help reduce the burden on healthcare facilities and could lead to reduction in health insurance costs.
Topics: Male; Female; Humans; Smartphone; Electrocardiography; Heart Rate; Atrial Fibrillation; Photoplethysmography; COVID-19
PubMed: 37935806
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-45933-3 -
Biosensors Feb 2022Continuous monitoring of pulse waves plays a significant role in reflecting physical conditions and disease diagnosis. However, the current collection equipment cannot...
Continuous monitoring of pulse waves plays a significant role in reflecting physical conditions and disease diagnosis. However, the current collection equipment cannot simultaneously achieve wearable and continuous monitoring under varying pressure and provide personalized pulse wave monitoring targeted different human bodies. To solve the above problems, this paper proposed a novel wearable and real-time pulse wave monitoring system based on a novel flexible compound sensor. Firstly, a custom-packaged pressure sensor, a signal stabilization structure, and a micro pressurization system make up the flexible compound sensor to complete the stable acquisition of pulse wave signals under continuously varying pressure. Secondly, a real-time algorithm completes the analysis of the trend of the pulse wave peak, which can quickly and accurately locate the best pulse wave for different individuals. Finally, the experimental results show that the wearable system can both realize continuous monitoring and reflecting trend differences and quickly locate the best pulse wave for different individuals with the 95% accuracy. The weight of the whole system is only 52.775 g, the working current is 46 mA, and the power consumption is 160 mW. Its small size and low power consumption meet wearable and portable scenarios, which has significant research value and commercialization prospects.
Topics: Algorithms; Heart Rate; Humans; Monitoring, Physiologic; Pulse; Wearable Electronic Devices
PubMed: 35200393
DOI: 10.3390/bios12020133 -
Journal of the American Heart... Feb 2022Background Beat-to-beat blood pressure variability (BPV) is associated with an increased risk of stroke but can be driven by both healthy physiological processes and...
Background Beat-to-beat blood pressure variability (BPV) is associated with an increased risk of stroke but can be driven by both healthy physiological processes and failure of compensatory mechanisms. Blood pressure (BP) complexity measures structured, organized variations in BP, as opposed to random fluctuations, and its reduction may therefore identify pathological beat-to-beat BPV. Methods and Results In the prospective, population-based OXVASC (Oxford Vascular Study) Phenotyped Cohort with transient ischemic attack or minor stroke, patients underwent at least 5 minutes of noninvasive beat-to-beat monitoring of BP (Finometer) and ECG to derive the following: BPV (coefficient of variation) and complexity (modified multiscale entropy) of systolic BP and diastolic BP, heart rate variability (SD of R-R intervals), and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS; Welch's method), in low- (0.04-0.15 Hz) and high-frequency (0.15-0.4 Hz) bands. Associations between BPV or BP complexity with autonomic indexes and arterial stiffness were determined (linear regression), unadjusted, and adjusted for age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors. In 908 consecutive, consenting patients, BP complexity was inversely correlated with BPV coefficient of variation (<0.001) and was similarly reduced in patients with hypertension or diabetes (<0.001). However, although BPV coefficient of variation had a U-shaped relationship with age, BP complexity fell systematically across age quintiles (quintile 1: 15.1 [14.0-16.1] versus quintile 5: 13.8 [12.4-15.1]) and was correlated with markers of autonomic dysfunction (heart rate variability SD of R-R intervals: = 0.20; BRS low frequency: 0.19; BRS high frequency: 0.26) and arterial stiffness (pulse wave velocity: -0.21; all <0.001), even after adjustment for clinical variables (heart rate variability SD of R-R intervals: 0.12; BRS low frequency and BRS high frequency: 0.13 and 0.17; and pulse wave velocity: -0.07; all <0.05). Conclusions Loss of BP complexity discriminates BPV because of pathological failure of compensatory mechanisms and may represent a less confounded and potentially modifiable risk factor for stroke.
Topics: Aging; Baroreflex; Biomarkers; Blood Pressure; Heart Rate; Humans; Prospective Studies; Pulse Wave Analysis; Stroke
PubMed: 35043657
DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.121.022865 -
Cognition Feb 2020Direct-gaze signals are known to modulate human cognition, including self-awareness. In the present study, we specifically focused on 'bodily' self-awareness and...
Direct-gaze signals are known to modulate human cognition, including self-awareness. In the present study, we specifically focused on 'bodily' self-awareness and examined whether direct gaze would modulate one's interoceptive accuracy (IAcc)-the ability to accurately monitor internal bodily sensations. While viewing a photograph of a frontal face with a direct gaze, an averted face or a mere white cross as a baseline, participants were required to count their heartbeats without taking their pulse. The results showed higher IAcc in the direct-gaze condition than in the averted-face or baseline condition. This was particularly the case in participants with low IAcc at baseline, indicating that direct gaze enhanced the participants' IAcc. Importantly, their heart rate was not different while viewing the direct gaze and averted face, suggesting that sensitivity to interoceptive signals, rather than physiological arousal, is heightened by direct gaze. These findings demonstrate the role of social signals in our bodily interoceptive processing and support the notion of the social nature of self-awareness.
Topics: Adult; Awareness; Facial Recognition; Female; Fixation, Ocular; Heart Rate; Humans; Interoception; Male; Young Adult
PubMed: 31710869
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104113 -
Scientific Reports May 2024Arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV) is recognized as a convenient method to assess peripheral vascular stiffness. This study explored the clinical characteristics of hand...
Arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV) is recognized as a convenient method to assess peripheral vascular stiffness. This study explored the clinical characteristics of hand PWV (hPWV) and hand pulse transit time (hPTT) in healthy adults (sixty males = 42.4 ± 13.9 yrs; sixty-four females = 42.8 ± 13.9 yrs) voluntarily participated in this study. The arterial pulse waveform and the anatomical distance from the radial styloid process to the tip of the middle finger of both hands were recorded in the sitting position. The hPWV was calculated as the traversed distance divided by hPTT between those two points. Male subjects showed significantly greater hPWV, systolic blood pressure, and pulse pressure than age-matched female subjects, while the hPTT was not significantly different between genders. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that gender is a common determinant of hPWV and hPTT, and that age and heart rate (HR) were negatively correlated with hPWV and hPTT, respectively. We conclude that male subjects have greater hPWV than female subjects. Ageing is associated with decreased hPWV, while increased HR is associated with a smaller hPTT. The hPWV and hPTT might be used as non-invasive indices to characterise the ageing and arterial stiffness of peripheral blood vessels.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Pulse Wave Analysis; Adult; Middle Aged; Hand; Vascular Stiffness; Blood Pressure; Heart Rate; Healthy Volunteers
PubMed: 38698185
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60927-5 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Dec 2021Camera-based remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) is a low-cost and casual non-contact heart rate measurement method suitable for telemedicine. Several factors affect the...
Camera-based remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) is a low-cost and casual non-contact heart rate measurement method suitable for telemedicine. Several factors affect the accuracy of measuring the heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) using rPPG despite HRV being an important indicator for healthcare monitoring. This study aimed to investigate the appropriate setup for precise HRV measurements using rPPG while considering the effects of possible factors including illumination, direction of the light, frame rate of the camera, and body motion. In the lighting conditions experiment, the smallest mean absolute R-R interval (RRI) error was obtained when light greater than 500 lux was cast from the front (among the following conditions-illuminance: 100, 300, 500, and 700 lux; directions: front, top, and front and top). In addition, the RRI and HRV were measured with sufficient accuracy at frame rates above 30 fps. The accuracy of the HRV measurement was greatly reduced when the body motion was not constrained; thus, it is necessary to limit the body motion, especially the head motion, in an actual telemedicine situation. The results of this study can act as guidelines for setting up the shooting environment and camera settings for rPPG use in telemedicine.
Topics: Algorithms; Heart Rate; Motion; Photoplethysmography; Telemedicine
PubMed: 34960451
DOI: 10.3390/s21248357 -
Journal of the American Heart... Aug 2019Background Home blood pressure is a more accurate prognosticator than office blood pressure and allows the observation of day-to-day blood pressure variability.... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
Background Home blood pressure is a more accurate prognosticator than office blood pressure and allows the observation of day-to-day blood pressure variability. Information on blood pressure change during the life course links the prediction of blood pressure elevation with age. We prospectively assessed age-related trends in home blood pressure, home pulse rate, and their day-to-day variability evaluated as a coefficient of variation. Methods and Results We examined 1665 participants (men, 36.0%; mean age, 56.2 years) from the general population of Ohasama, Japan. A repeated-measures mixed linear model was used to estimate the age-related trends. In a mean of 15.9 years, we observed 5438 points of measurements including those at baseline. The home systolic blood pressure linearly increased with age and was higher in men than in women aged <70 years. There was an inverse-U-shaped age-related trend in home diastolic blood pressure. The day-to-day home systolic blood pressure linearly increased with age in individuals aged >40 years. However, an U-shaped age-related trend in day-to-day diastolic blood pressure variability with the nadir point at 65 to 69 years of age was observed. No significant sex differences in the day-to-day blood pressure variability were observed (P≥0.22). The average and day-to-day variability of home pulse rate decreased with age but were lower and higher, respectively, in men than in women. Conclusions The current descriptive data are needed to predict future home blood pressure and pulse rate. The data also provide information on the mechanism of day-to-day blood pressure and pulse rate variability.
Topics: Age Factors; Aged; Blood Pressure Determination; Cohort Studies; Female; Heart Rate; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies
PubMed: 31333055
DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.119.012121 -
Health Informatics Journal Jun 2016There are downloadable applications (Apps) for cell phones that can measure heart rate in a simple and painless manner. The aim of this study was to assess the...
There are downloadable applications (Apps) for cell phones that can measure heart rate in a simple and painless manner. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of this type of App for a Smartphone using an Android system, compared to the radial pulse and a portable pulse oximeter. We performed a pilot observational study of diagnostic accuracy, randomized in 46 healthy volunteers. The patients' demographic data and cardiac pulse were collected. Radial pulse was measured by palpation of the radial artery with three fingers at the wrist over the radius; a low-cost portable, liquid crystal display finger pulse oximeter; and a Heart Rate Plus for Samsung Galaxy Note®. This study demonstrated high reliability and consistency between systems with respect to the heart rate parameter of healthy adults using three systems. For all parameters, ICC was > 0.93, indicating excellent reliability. Moreover, CVME values for all parameters were between 1.66-4.06 %. We found significant correlation coefficients and no systematic differences between radial pulse palpation and pulse oximeter and a high precision. Low-cost pulse oximeter and App systems can serve as valid instruments for the assessment of heart rate in healthy adults.
Topics: Adult; Cell Phone; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Heart Rate; Humans; Male; Mobile Applications; Oximetry; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 25038201
DOI: 10.1177/1460458214540909