Abstract—Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) is a common heart disorder found especially in low-weight premature infants. The purpose of this study is to apply the non-invasive monitoring equipment Philips M60 and a perfusion index (PI) value measuring equipment with customized software to obtain and record the ECG and PI signals of newborn babies. The self-developed software is applied to analyze heart rate variability (HRV) and PI value to observe the relationship between PDA status, PI and HRV. One-sample T-test is used for statistical analysis. Eight premature infants were recruited for this study in Level 3 Neonatal ICU of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. Results showed that the PDA in open status and close status in the RRI (RR Intervals) values of HRV signals (0.401±0.045 vs. 0.394±0.041, p<0.05) and PI values (1.021±0.323 vs. 1.48±0.457, p<0.05) of premature babies are significantly different. When the PDA is closed, the RRI values are lower than when PDA is open. On the other hand, when the PDA is open, the PI values are lower than when PDA is closed. The main reason is when ductus arteriosus (DA) is closed, blood in the main artery can not pass through the pulmonary artery and enter the lung through the opening duct, which lowers the pressure of the lung, and stops the left to right backflow.

Index Terms—Premature infant, heart rate variability, perfusion index, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

Hsiang-Wen Chen is with Ph.D. Program of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan (email: wenhsiang99@yahoo.com.tw).
Han-Ting Chung is with Master’s Program of Biomedical Informatics and Biomedical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chuang-Chien Chiu is with Ph.D. Program of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan. He is also with Master’s Program of Biomedical Informatics and Biomedical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan and Department of Automatic Control Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Teh-Ming Wang is with Department of Pediatrics & Child Health Care, Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.

Cite: Hsiang-Wen Chen, Han-Ting Chung, Chuang-Chien Chiu, Teh-Ming Wang, "Noninvasive Physiological Signal Analysis and Implementation of Monitoring and Control System for Premature Infants," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 145-151, 2016.