Thoracoabdominal motion in newborns: Reliability between two interactive computing environments.

BACKGROUND: Quantifying the chest wall is useful in documenting thoracoabdominal synchrony during the neonatal period. Subjective measures are often used rather than gold-standard methods due to their practicality in clinical practice. The aim of the present study is to compare the reliability between a newly proposed method (video analysis in MATLAB) and image analysis using AutoCad tools, both applied to assess thoracoabdominal motion in newborns (NBs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an observational cross-sectional study of full-term NBs. A digital camera was used to film thoracoabdominal motion for 2 minutes in the supine position, with movements measured by the two aforementioned methodologies. RESULTS: A total of 139 images were used, showing agreement between AutoCAD and MATLAB (BIAS = -1.68; CI = -6.59:3.22, Bland-Altman plot). CONCLUSION: The programs were interchangeable and the routine developed in MATLAB was simpler and faster, allowing dynamic analysis and suggesting its clinical utility in quantifying respiratory motion in NBs.