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. 2020 Jan-Dec:17:1479973120983331.
doi: 10.1177/1479973120983331.

Awakening efficacy of a vibrotactile device in patients on home nocturnal ventilatory assistance and healthy subjects as family caregiver proxies

Valerie Attali  1   2   3 , Sophie Lavault  1   3   4 , Antoine Guerder  4 , Saba Al-Youssef  2   3 , Benjamin Dudoignon  2 , Jessica Taytard  1   5 , Isabelle Arnulf  2 , Morgane Faure  4 , Christian Straus  1   3   6 , Thomas Similowski  1   3   4 ; BRASSARD Study Group
Affiliations

Awakening efficacy of a vibrotactile device in patients on home nocturnal ventilatory assistance and healthy subjects as family caregiver proxies

Valerie Attali et al. Chron Respir Dis. 2020 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to test the capacity of vibrotactile stimulation transmitted to the wrist bones by a vibrating wristband to awaken healthy individuals and patients requiring home mechanical ventilation during sleep. Healthy subjects (n = 20) and patients with central hypoventilation (CH) (Congenital Central Hypoventilation syndrome n = 7; non-genetic form of CH n = 1) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n = 9), underwent a full-night polysomnography while wearing the wristband. Vibrotactile alarms were triggered five times during the night at random intervals. Electroencephalographic (EEG), clinical (trunk lift) and cognitive (record the time on a sheet of paper) arousals were recorded. Cognitive arousals were observed for 94% of the alarms in the healthy group and for 66% and 63% of subjects in the CH and COPD groups, respectively (p < 0.01). The percentage of participants experiencing cognitive arousals for all alarms, was 72% for healthy subjects, 37.5% for CH patients and 33% for COPD patients (ns) (94%, 50% and 44% for clinical arousals (p < 0.01) and 100%, 63% and 44% for EEG arousals (p < 0.01)). Device acceptance was good in the majority of cases, with the exception of one CH patient and eight healthy participants. In summary this study shows that a vibrotactile stimulus is effective to induce awakenings in healthy subjects, but is less effective in patients, supporting the notion that a vibrotactile stimulus could be an effective backup to a home mechanical ventilator audio alarm for healthy family caregivers.

Keywords: Chronic respiratory failure; caregivers; congenital central hypoventilation syndrome; family; monitoring; sleep; vibrotactile stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Sophie LAVAULT received a fee from ANTADIR as study coordinator; Thomas SIMILOWSKI and Christian STRAUS are listed as inventors of patent US9761112B2 ‘Assistance terminal for remotely monitoring a person connected to a medical assistance and monitoring device’ (not licensed). Others authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Patented listening device to identify home mechanical ventilator alarms and activate external relay systems.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Device used in the study including: (i) a vibrating wristband (‘Feeltact’®, Novitact Lacroix Saint-Ouen, France), and (ii) a phone application (H2 AD, Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds, France) comprising a specific algorithm to trigger vibrating alarms.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Proportion of cognitive, clinical and EEG arousals by groups. CH: central hypoventilation, COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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