A new publication¹ published in Pediatric Research investigated the feasibility of measuring heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) wirelessly from a newborn’s forehead after birth compared to standard wrist pulse oximetry and ECG (HR). The observational study was conducted in two tertiary maternity hospitals at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK. Researchers used a forehead-mounted photoplethysmography sensor (fhPPG) and a wrist-mounted pulse oximeter (wrPO) on 20 full-term infants delivered via elective caesarean section, observing the first 10 minutes of life.

Key Findings:

1. HR Measurement: The forehead sensor had a higher success rate (100%) for reporting HR values within the first 6 minutes compared to the wrist sensor (69%). Both devices reached over 95% HR accuracy within 3-4 minutes.
2. The forehead PPG sensor demonstrated good HR agreement with the ECG HR
3. SpO2 Measurement: SpO2 readings from the forehead PPG correlated well with those from the wrist sensor, but the forehead provided higher and more stable SpO2 readings during the initial 3 to 8 minutes.
4. Forehead monitored PPG showed advantages in HR and SPO2 montoring at birth, suggesting it could improve care during the crucial newborn transition period.

Figure 1. Shows SpO2 signals recorded during the first 10 minutes post-birth for infant 11 (Blue = fhPPG, black = wrPO).

Figure 1.

Conclusions:

In healthy term infants during transition, forehead wireless measurement of vital signs was demonstrated to be feasible and delivering greater HR accuracy and higher estimated SpO2 values compared to standard wrist-sited pulse oximetry. The study concludes that use of a PPG sensor on the newborn forehead in the delivery room could provide a novel wireless alternative for measuring not only HR and SpO2 at birth, and warrants further investigation.

SurePulse VS

The SurePulse VS is SurePulse’s first device, approved in the US, UK and EU for clinical use, and comprises a thermo-protective single-use cap that provides clinical teams with wireless, continuous and accurate PPG heart rate information. These study findings further support the value of the SurePulse VS forehead mounted device for providing clinicians with accurate and timely heart rate information in the first critical moments of life.

A summary and a link to the full publication can be found here.

References

Swamy, S.K.N., Stockwell, S.J., Liu, C. et al.Comparing peripheral limb and forehead vital sign monitoring in newborn infants at birth. Pediatr Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-024-03651-0