RespiraSense Versus Capnography & Manual Counting

Your respiratory rate is your number of breaths per minute. The standard way for this to be measured is by a nurse looking at you for one minute and manually counting your breaths over this time. They normally do this once every few hours. At times, it can be useful to have your respiratory rate continuously monitored. A device that can do this is a capnograph. For the patient, this involves wearing a tube in their nose and around their ears while trying to minimise their movement and talking so the measurements can be taken. This research study is looking at a new respiratory rate monitor and comparing how well it works against the current accepted methods. Patients who are admitted to the Acute Medical Unit will be invited to participate should they meet all eligibility criteria. Subjects will be monitored for two hours: (i) For the first hour subjects will wear a capnograph, RespiraSense and have their respiratory rate manually counted by a research nurse. During this time the subject will be asked to keep talking and moving to a minimum. (ii) For the second hour subjects will wear RespiraSense and have their respiratory rate manually counted by a research nurse. During this time the subject can talk and move as they wish.