Abstract
Chronic itch affects 13% of the US population, is highly debilitating, and underlies many medical conditions. A major challenge in clinical care and new therapeutics development is the lack of an objective measure for quantifying itch, leading to reliance on subjective measures like patients' self-assessment of itch severity. In this paper, we show that a home radio device paired with artificial intelligence (AI) can concurrently capture scratching and evaluate its impact on sleep quality by analyzing radio signals bouncing in the environment. The device eliminates the need for wearable sensors or skin contact, enabling monitoring of chronic itch over extended periods at home without burdening patients or interfering with their skin condition. To validate the technology, we conducted an observational clinical study of chronic pruritus patients, monitored at home for one month using both the radio device and an infrared camera. Comparing the output of the device to ground truth data from the camera demonstrates its feasibility and accuracy (ROC AUC = 0.997, sensitivity = 0.825, specificity = 0.997). The results reveal a significant correlation between scratching and low sleep quality, manifested as a reduction in sleep efficiency (R = 0.6, p < 0.001) and an increase in sleep latency (R = 0.68, p < 0.001). Our study underscores the potential of passive, long-term, at-home monitoring of chronic scratching and its sleep implications, offering a valuable tool for both clinical care of chronic itch patients and pharmaceutical clinical trials.
Abstract (translated)
慢性瘙痒影响了美国13%的人口,具有高度的致残性,并且是许多医疗状况的基础。临床护理和新疗法开发面临的一个主要挑战是对瘙痒缺乏客观测量方法,这导致依赖于患者自我评估等主观指标来衡量瘙痒严重程度。在本文中,我们展示了家用无线设备与人工智能(AI)结合可以同时捕捉抓挠行为并评估其对睡眠质量的影响,通过分析环境中的无线电波信号实现这一点。该设备消除了使用可穿戴传感器或皮肤接触的需要,允许患者无需负担和不影响皮肤状况的情况下,在家中长期监测慢性瘙痒。为了验证这项技术的有效性,我们进行了一项观察性临床研究,针对慢性瘙痒症患者,用无线设备和红外摄像机在家进行了为期一个月的监测。将设备输出与摄像机提供的真实数据对比显示了该设备在可行性和准确性方面的表现(ROC AUC = 0.997,灵敏度 = 0.825,特异性 = 0.997)。研究结果揭示了抓挠行为和睡眠质量降低之间存在显著相关性,表现为睡眠效率下降(R = 0.6, p < 0.001) 和入睡时间延长 (R = 0.68, p < 0.001)。我们的研究表明,长期、无接触的家庭监控慢性抓挠及其对睡眠的影响具有潜在价值,为慢性瘙痒患者的临床护理和药物临床试验提供了有价值的工具。
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04896