Biomedical signal processing and interpretation

Research Topics

Multichannel-Multimodal Biomedical Signal Processing / Sleep-disordered breathing analysis and interpretation / Non-invasive respiratory monitoring / Respiratory sounds analysis in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease / Advanced signal processing techniques to define new indices of cardiac risk / Multimodal interactions interpretation of blood pressure, electrocardiogram and respiration

The research of the group is on the field of sleep disorders related to breathing, respiratory, cardiac and neurological pathologies.

We explore new methods and techniques for multi-channel and multimodal acquisition, processing, modelling and interpretation of clinically relevant information from biomedical signals. Our main objective is to improve the diagnosis capability through the characterization of physiological phenomena, and to the enhance early detection of major diseases. The group’s research addresses the design and development of advanced signal processing techniques and the interpretation of biomedical signals to improve monitoring, diagnosis, disease prevention and pathology treatment.

Studies have shown that there is a close relationship between sleep, respiratory and cardiac signals in different pathologies. In some cases, obstructive respiration during the night, such as obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), gives rise to sleep disorders and the subsequent cardiovascular effects. In other cases, cardiac pathologies result in significant changes to respiratory patterns. This biological interaction suggests that a multimodal-multichannel approach will improve the identification and study of major cardiac and respiratory diseases that are highly prevalent in the world population. Simultaneous analysis and processing of bioelectrical, mechanical, sound and blood signals will enhance our understanding of physiology and our diagnostic capabilities.


Analysis and interpretation of timefrequency respiratory sounds for monitoring and diagnosing asthma and obstructive lung diseases.












Advanced algorithms for early diagnosis of the obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, through the analysis and interpretation of snoring episodes.

• Prof. Dr. Raimon Jané | Group Leader
• Dr. José Antonio Fiz | Senior Researcher
• Dr. Beatriz Giraldo | Senior Researcher
• Dr. Abel Torres | Senior Researcher
• Dr. Ainara Garde | Postdoctoral Researcher
• Dr. Jordi Sola-Soler | Postdoctoral Researcher
• Joana Mesquita | PhD Student
• Leonardo Sarlabous | PhD Student
• Oiane Urra | PhD Student
• Alejandro Calvo | Master Student
• Mirella López | Master Student
• Beatriz Martínez | Master Student
• Manuel Lozano | Research Technician
• Maria Puy Ruiz de Alda | Research Technician

• Sola-Soler, J., Fiz, J. A., Morera, J. & Jané, R. (2012). Multiclass classification of subjects with sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome through snoring analysis. Med Eng Phys, in press.
• Morgenstern, R., Morgenstern, C., Jané, R. & Lee, S. (2011). Usefulness of an expandable interbody spacer for the treatment of foraminal stenosis in extremely collapsed disks: preliminary clinical experience with endoscopic posterolateral transforaminal approach. J Spinal Disord Tech., 24(8), 485-491.
• Fiz, J. A., Sola-Soler, J. & Jané, R. (2011). Métodos de análisis del ronquido. Medicina Clínica, 137(1), 36-42.
• Chaparro, J. A., Giraldo, B., Caminal, P. & Benito, S (2011). Analysis of the respiratory pattern variability of patients in weaning process using autoregressive modeling techniques. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 5690-3.
• Arcentales, A., Giraldo, B., Caminal, P., Benito, S. & Voss, A (2011). Recurrence quantification analysis of heart rate variability and respiratory flow series in patients on weaning trials. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 2724-7.
• Sola-Soler, J., Fiz, J. A., Morera, J. & Jané, R (2011). Bayes classification of snoring subjects with and without Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome, using a Kernel method. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 6071-4.
• Jané, R., Fiz, J. A., Sola-Soler, J., Mesquita, J. & Morera, J (2011). Snoring analysis for the screening of sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome with a single-channel device developed using polysomnographic and snoring databases. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 8331-3.
• Sarlabous, L., Torres, A., Fiz, J. A., Gea, J., Martinez-Llorens, J., Morera, J. & Jané, R (2011). Evaluation of the respiratory muscles efficiency during an incremental flow respiratory test. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 3820-3.
• Morgenstern, C., Schwaibold, M., Randerath, W., Bolz, A. & Jané, R (2011). Comparison of upper airway respiratory resistance measurements with the esophageal pressure/airflow relationship during sleep. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 3205-8.
• Mesquita, J., Fiz, J. A., Sola-Soler, J., Morera, J. & Jané, R (2011). Normal non-regular snores as a tool for screening SAHS severity. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 3197-200.
• Garde, A., Giraldo, B., Sornmo, L. & Jané, R (2011). Analysis of the respiratory flow cycle morphology in chronic heart failure patients applying principal components analysis. In Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011, pages 1725-8.
• Morgenstern, C., Schwaibold, M., Randerath, W., Bolz, A. & Jané, R. (2010). Automatic non-invasive differentiation of obstructive and central hypopneas with nasal airflow compared to esophageal pressure.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 6142-5.
• Arcentales, A., Giraldo, B., Caminal, P., DIaz, I. & Benito, S. (2010). Spectral analysis of the RR series and the respiratory flow signal on patients in weaning process.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2485-8.
• Correa, R., Laciar, E., Arini, P. & Jané, R. (2010). Analysis of QRS loop in the Vectorcardiogram of patients with Chagas' disease.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2561-4.
• Torres, A., Sarlabous, L., Fiz, J. A., Gea, J., Martinez-Llorens, J., Morera, J. & Jané, R. (2010). Noninvasive measurement of inspiratory muscle performance by means of diaphragm muscle mechanomyographic signals in COPD patients during an incremental load respiratory test.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2493-6.
• Garde, A., Sornmo, L., Jané, R. & Giraldo, B. (2010). Correntropy-based nonlinearity test applied to patients with chronic heart failure.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2399-402.
• Morgenstern, C., Schwaibold, M., Randerath, W., Bolz, A. & Jané, R. (2010). An Invasive and a Noninvasive Approach for the Automatic Differentiation of Obstructive and Central Hypopneas. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng., 57, 1927-1936.
• Fiz, J. A., Jané, R., Sola-Soler, J., Abad, J., García, M. & Morera, J. (2010). Continuous analysis and monitoring of snores and their relationship to the apnea-hypopnea index. Laryngoscope, 120, 854–862.
• Garde, A., Sörnmo, L., Jané, R. & Giraldo, B. (2010). Correntropy-Based Spectral Characterization of Respiratory Patterns in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng., 57, 1964-1972.
• Garde, A., Sörnmo, L., Jané, R. & Giraldo, B. (2010). Breathing Pattern Characterization in Chronic Heart Failure Patients Using the Respiratory Flow Signal. Ann Biomed Eng., 38, 3572-80.
• Caminal, P., Giraldo, B., Vallverdú, M., Benito, S., Schroeder, R. & Voss, A. (2010). Symbolic Dynamic Analysis of Relations Between Cardiac and Breathing Cycles in Patients on Weaning Trials. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 38, 2542-2552.
• Garde, A., Schroeder, R., Voss, A., Caminal, P., Benito, S. & Giraldo, B. (2010). Patients on weaning trials classified with support vector machines. Physiological Measurement, 31(7), 979.
• Mesquita, J., Fiz, J. A., Sola-Soler, J., Morera, J. & Jané, R. (2010). Regular and non regular snore features as markers of SAHS. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 6138-41.
• Leder, R., Schlotthauer, G., Penzel, T. & Jané, R. (2010). The natural history of the sleep and respiratory engineering track at EMBC 1988 to 2010.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 1, 288-91.
• Sarlabous, L., Torres, A., Fiz, J. A., Gea, J., Martinez-Llorens, J., Morera, J. & Jané, R. (2010). Interpretation of the approximate entropy using fixed tolerance values as a measure of amplitude variations in biomedical signals.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 5967-70.
• Correa, L., Laciar, E., Mut, V., Giraldo, B. & Torres, A. (2010). Multi-parameter analysis of ECG and Respiratory Flow signals to identify success of patients on weaning trials.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 1 6070-3 Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 6070-3.
• Morgenstern, C., Schwaibold, M., Randerath, W., Bolz, A. & Jané, R. (2009). Automatic differentiation of obstructive and central hypopneas with esophageal pressure measurement during sleep. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 7102-5.
• Morgenstern, C., Schwaibold, M., Randerath, W., Bolz, A. & Jané, R. (2009). Assessment of changes in upper airway obstruction by automatic identification of inspiratory flow limitation during sleep.. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng., 56, 2006-15.
• Fiz, J. A., Prat, J. M. & Jané, R. (2009). Treatment of Patients With Simple Snoring. Arch Bronconeumol., 45, 508-15.
• Gea, J., Gáldiz, J., COmtois, N., Zhu, E., Salazkin, I., Fiz, J. A. & Grassino, A. (2009). Modifications of Diaphragmatic Activity Induced by Midline Laparotomy and Changes in Abdominal Wall Compliance. Arch Bronconeumol., 45, 30-5.
• Gea, J., Zhu, E., Gáldiz, J., Comtois, N., Salazkin, I., Fiz, J. A. & Grassino, A. (2009). Functional consequences of eccentric contractions of the diaphragm. Arch Bronconeumol., 45, 68-74.
• Correa, R., Laciar, E., Arini, P. & Jané, R. (2009). Analysis of QRS loop changes in the beat-to-beat Vectocardiogram of ischemic patients undergoing PTCA. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1750-3.
• Garde, A., Sornmo, L., Jané, R. & Giraldo, B. (2009). Correntropy-based analysis of respiratory patterns in patients with chronic heart failure. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 4687-4690.
• Correa, L., LAciar, E., Mut, V., Torres, A. & Jané, R. (2009). Sleep apnea detection based on spectral analysis of three ECG-derived respiratory signals. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 4723-6.
• Correa, A., Laciar, E., Orosco, L., Gómez, M., Otoya, R. & Jané, R. (2009). An energy-based detection algorithm of epileptic seizures in EEG records. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1384-7.
• Sarlabous, L., Torres, A., Fiz, J. A., Gea, J., Martinez-Llorens, J. & Jané, R. (2009). Evaluation of the respiratory muscular function by means of diaphragmatic mechanomyographic signals in copd patients. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 3925-8.
• Sarlabous, L., Torres, A., Fiz, J. A., Gea, J., Galdiz, J. & Jané, R. (2009). Multistate Lempel-Ziv (MLZ) index interpretation as a measure of amplitude and complexity changes. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc..
• Diez, P. F., Mut, V., Laciar, E. & Torres, A. (2009). Application of the empirical mode decomposition to the extraction of features from EEG signals for mental task classification.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2579-82.
• Arizmendi, C., Romero, E., Alquezar, R., Caminal, P., Diaz, I., Benito, S. & Giraldo, B. (2009). Data mining of patients on weaning trials from mechanical ventilation using cluster analysis and neural networks.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 4343-6.
• Garde, A., Giraldo, B., Jané, R. & Sörnmo, L. (2009). Time-varying respiratory pattern characterization in chronic heart failure patients and healthy subjects. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 4007-10.
• Orosco, L., Laciar, E., Correa, A., Torres, A. & Graffigna, J. (2009). An epileptic seizures detection algorithm based on the empirical mode decomposition of EEG.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 2651-4.
• Correa, L. S., Laciar, E., Torres, A. & Jané, R. (2008). Performance evaluation of three methods for respiratory signal estimation from the electrocardiogram.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 4760-3.
• Morgenstern, C., Jané, R., Schwaibold, M. & Randerath, W. (2008). Automatic classification of inspiratory flow limitation assessed non-invasively during sleep.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1132-5.
• Sola-Soler, J., Jané, R., Fiz, J. A. & Morera, J. (2008). Formant frequencies of normal breath sounds of snorers may indicate the risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 3500-3.
• Martinez-Rivera, C., Abad, J., Fiz, J. A., Rios, J. & Morera, J. (2008). Usefulness of truncal obesity indices as predictive factors for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.. Obesity (Silver Spring), 16, 113-8.
• Morgenstern, C., Jané, R., Schwaibold, M. & Randerath, W. (2008). Characterization of inspiratory flow limitation during sleep with an exponential model. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 2439-42.
• Torres, A., Fiz, J. A., Jané, R., Laciar, E., Galdiz, J. B., Gea, J. & Morera, J. (2008). Rényi entropy and Lempel-Ziv complexity of mechanomyographic recordings of diaphragm muscle as indexes of respiratory effort.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 2112-5.
• Garde, A., Giraldo, B., Jané, R., Diaz, I., Herrera, S., Benito, S., Domingo, M. & Bayés-Genis, A. (2008). Characterization of periodic and non-periodic breathing pattern in chronic heart failure patients.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 3227-30.
• Orini, M., Giraldo, B., Bailón, R., Vallverdú, M., Mainardi, L., Benito, S., Díaz, I. & Caminal, P. (2008). Time-frequency analysis of cardiac and respiratory parameters for the prediction of ventilator weaning.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 2793-6.
• Diez, P. F., LAciar, E., Mut, V., Avila, E. & Torres, A. (2008). A comparative study of the performance of different spectral estimation methods for classification of mental tasks.. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1155-8.
• Fiz, J. A., Gnitecki, J., Kraman, S. S., Wodicka, G. R. & Pasterkamp, H. (2008). Effect of Body Position on Lung Sounds in Healthy Young Men*. Chest, 133(3), 729-736.
• Solanes, I., Casan, P., Sangenis, M., Calaf, N., Giraldo, B. & Guell, R. (2007). Factores de riesgo de mortalidad en la EPOC. ARCHIVOS DE BRONCONEUMOLOGIA, 43(8), 445-449.
• Fiz, J. A., Jané, R., Izquierdo, J., Homs, A., Garcia, M. A., Gomez, R. & Monso, E. (2006). Analysis of Forced Wheezes in Asthma Patients. RESPIRATION, 73(1), 55-60.

Projects

• Exhaled breath inflammatory, oxidative stress and metabonomic biomarkers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer (2009-FIS-BREATH 080283) Santiago Marco
• Real time analyzer of respiratory sounds for detection and evaluation of snoring and apnoea Raimon Jané
• Aplicaciones Biomédicas del Tratamiento de Señal en la Monitorización, Interpretación y Modelado Multimodal de Señales Cardiorespiratorias y Polisomnográficas Raimon Jané
• Investigación en Señales y Sistemas Biomédicos CIBER-BBN (Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina) Raimon Jané
• M3PBIO (Multichannel Monitoring and Multimodal Processing of Biomedical Signals in Sleep-Disordered Breathing, Respiratory Diseases and Cardiac Pathologies) Raimon Jané
• MUBISIPRO (Multimodal Multichannel Biomedical Signal Processing) Raimon Jané

Collaborations

• Prof. Dr. Lotfi Senhadji Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l’Image (LTSI), Université de Rennes 1, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM (France).


• Dra. Marta Sitges IDIBAPS, Servei de Cardiologia, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (Spain).


• Prof. Ramon Farré Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina, Barcelona (Spain).


• Dr. Joaquim Gea Servei Pneumologia, Hospital del Mar-IMIM, Barcelona (Spain).


• Prof. Javier Pavía Grupo de Imagen Médica (GIB). Universidad de Barcelona, Spain


• Prof. Andreas Voss University of Applied Sciences Jena (Germany).


• Prof. Domènec Ros Grupo de Imagen Médica (GIB). Universidad de Barcelona, Spain


• Prof. Winfried J. Randerath Institut für Pneumologie, Klinik Bethanien, Solingen (Germany).


• Prof. Antonio Bayes Genis Grup ICREC, Servei Cardiología Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol


• Prof. Alejandro Frangi Grupo de Imagen Computacional y tecnologías de Simulación en Biomedicina (CISTIB). Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Spain


• Prof. Manuel Doblaré Grupo de Mecánica Estructural y Modelado de Materiales. Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain


• Prof. Andrés Santos Grupo de Tecnologías de Imágenes Médicas (BIT). Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain


• Dr. Salvador Benito Emergency Unit of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain


• Dr. Alfredo Hernández Laboratoire Trataiment du Signal et de l’Image. Université de Rennes 1. Instituto Francés de Salud, France (INSERM), France.


• Dr. Josep Morera Prat Servicio de Neumología. Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Spain


• Prof. Pablo Laguna Instituto de Investigación de Aragón (I3A). Universidad de Zaragoza. Spain.


• Dr. José Antonio Fiz Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Carretera del Canyet s/n, Badalona


• Prof. Leif Sörnmo Signal processing group. Lund University. Sweden.


• Prof. Armin Bolz Institute of Biomedical Engineering. University of Karlsruhe, Germany.


• Dr. Eric Laciar Departamento de Electrónica y Automática. Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina.


• Prof. Dana H. Brooks Communications and Digital Signal Processing Center. Northeastern University, Boston, United States of America.


• Dr. Matthias Schwaibold MCC-Med GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe, Germany.

• BIOPAC system for multichannel cardiac and respiratory biomedical signal acquisition
• Databases of biomedical signals from Hospitals and Animal Laboratories
• Snoring analyzer equipment (SNORYZER)
• Sensors to obtain cardiac, respiratory and sleep biomedical signals
• Polisomnographic equipment available in the Sleep Laboratory of collaborator Hospital
• Beat to beat arterial blood pressureand haemodynamic monitor equipment
• Computing server for high performance biomedical signals

18/04/2011

“System Automatically Monitors Apnea-Hypopnea Index”

Some recent research by the Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation group has been featured in the section 'Literature Review: A roundup of the most important recent studies' in ENT Today magazine.