Peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO $_{2}$ ) is an essential indicator of respiratory functionality and received increasing attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical findings show that COVID-19 patients can have significantly low SpO $_{2}$ before any obvious symptoms. Measuring an individual's SpO $_{2}$ without having to come into contact with the person can lower the risk of cross contamination and blood circulation problems. The prevalence of smartphones has motivated researchers to investigate methods for monitoring SpO $_{2}$ using smartphone cameras. Most prior schemes involving smartphones are contact-based: They require using a fingertip to cover the phone's camera and the nearby light source to capture reemitted light from the illuminated tissue. In this paper, we propose the first convolutional neural network based noncontact SpO $_{2}$ estimation scheme using smartphone cameras. The scheme analyzes the videos of an individual's hand for physiological sensing, which is convenient and comfortable for users and can protect their privacy and allow for keeping face masks on. We design explainable neural network architectures inspired by the optophysiological models for SpO $_{2}$ measurement and demonstrate the explainability by visualizing the weights for channel combination. Our proposed models outperform the state-of-the-art model that is designed for contact-based SpO $_{2}$ measurement, showing the potential of the proposed method to contribute to public health. We also analyze the impact of skin type and the side of a hand on SpO $_{2}$ estimation performance.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of physical function performance and pulmonary function on patient outcomes after lung-sparing surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).A...

Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) experience short- and long-term side effects from cancer treatment that often impair functional capacity. Inspiratory muscle weakness is a potential mechanism for reduced functional capacity. The objective of this pilot study was to examine the relationship between inspiratory muscle strength and functional capacity in 10 CCS. Inspiratory muscle strength was measured by maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) while functional capacity was measured by the two-minute walk test (2MWT), the physiological cost index and hemodynamic response to exercise according to changes in heart rate, blood pressure and rate-pressure product (RPP). Overall, MIP and 2MWT distance were below predicted values. Hemodynamic responses to the 2MWT were consistent with little variation, except for elevated diastolic blood pressure (DBP) response. MIP had significant relationships with resting DBP (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient [r_s] = −0.70; p = 0.03) and DBP response (r_s = 0.72; p = 0.02). Time since completion of cancer treatment had a significant positive relationship with RPP response (r_s = 0.67; p = 0.03). Inspiratory muscle weakness in childhood cancer could be an indicator of skeletal muscle dysfunction and should be considered when symptoms of dyspnea or poor functional capacity arise. Inspiratory muscle strength was found to be related to changes in blood pressure in CCS. Future studies should further investigate these relationships and the impact of inspiratory muscle training on hemodynamics and functional capacity in CCS.