Respirator rate/respiration depth detector and device for monitoring respiratory activity employing same

摘要

A device for determining the respiration rate and/or respiration depth of a patient includes a sensor for sensing heart sounds and an analyzer for analyzing the variation of the amplitude of the sensed heart sounds to determine the respiration rate and/or respiration depth from this amplitude variation. An apparatus for monitoring the respiration of a patient includes such a device and the analyzer is arranged to determine an anomaly in the amplitude variation of the sensed heart sounds as an indication of a respiration anomaly.