Systems and techniques for estimating the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a patient

One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processing devices of a patient monitoring apparatus, cause the patient monitoring apparatus to:

• receive breathing data and locomotion data, wherein the breathing data is representative of breathing activity of a patient over a time interval, and the locomotion data is representative of locomotive activity of the patient over the time interval;
• determine whether the received breathing and locomotion signals have adequate characteristics for use in generating a COPD severity estimate;
• when the received breathing and/or locomotion signals are determined as inadequate, then produce an instruction notification to the patient regarding the patient's walking pace;
• when the received breathing and locomotion signals are determined as adequate, then generate a cross-recurrence quantification analysis (cRQA) parameter between the breathing data and the locomotion data, wherein generation of the cRQA parameter includes identification of a diagonal line in a cross-recurrence data set between the breathing data and the locomotion data, and the diagonal line includes multiple diagonal points occurring within an interval of 100 milliseconds;
• generate an estimate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) severity in the patient by comparing the cRQA parameter to a reference value;
• generate a notification of the COPD severity estimate;
• and
• send the notification to a computing device pertaining to at least one of the patient and a care provider.

A patient monitoring apparatus, comprising:

• means for generating breathing data and locomotion data, wherein the breathing data is based on a breathing signal that is representative of breathing activity of a patient over a time interval, the locomotion data is based on a locomotion signal representative of locomotive activity of the patient over the time interval;
• means for resampling the breathing signal or the locomotion signal so that the breathing data and the locomotion data are sampled at consistent times;
• means for determining whether the received breathing and locomotion signals have adequate characteristics for use in generating a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) severity estimate, and for producing an instruction notification to the patient regarding the patient's walking pace when not;
• means for generating a cross-recurrence quantification analysis (cRQA) parameter between the breathing data and the locomotion data;
• means for generating an estimate of COPD severity in the patient by comparing the cRQA parameter to a reference value;
• means for generating a notification comprising the COPD severity estimate;
• and
• means for sending the notification to a computing device of the patient and/or a computing device of a care provider.

A method of estimating severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a patient, by a patient monitoring system, the method comprising:

• receiving a breathing signal and a locomotion signal, wherein the breathing signal is representative of breathing activity of a patient over a time interval, the locomotion signal is representative of locomotive activity of the patient over the time interval;
• determining whether the received breathing and locomotion signals have adequate characteristics for use in generating a COPD severity estimate;
• when the received breathing and/or locomotion signals are determined as inadequate, then producing an instruction notification to the patient regarding the patient's walking pace;
• when the received breathing and locomotion signals are determined as adequate, then generating breathing data based on the breathing signal, wherein generating breathing data includes applying a first frequency-based filter to the breathing signal;
• generating locomotion data based on the locomotion signal, wherein generating locomotion data includes applying a second frequency-based filter to the locomotion signal;
• generating a cross-recurrence quantification analysis (cRQA) parameter between the breathing data and the locomotion data, wherein generation of the cRQA parameter includes identification of a diagonal line in a cross-recurrence data set between the breathing data and the locomotion data, and the diagonal line includes multiple diagonal points occurring within an interval of 100 milliseconds;
• generating an estimate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) severity in the patient by the cRQA parameter to a reference value;
• generating a notification of the COPD severity estimate;
• and
• sending the notification to a computing device of the patient and/or a computing device of a care provider.