Surface EMG-based quantification of inspiratory effort: a quantitative comparison with P(es)

BACKGROUND: Inspiratory patient effort under assisted mechanical ventilation is an important quantity for assessing patient–ventilator interaction and recognizing over and under assistance. An established clinical standard is respiratory muscle pressure [Formula: see text] , derived from esophageal pressure ([Formula: see text] ), which requires the correct placement and calibration of an esophageal balloon catheter. Surface electromyography (sEMG) of the respiratory muscles represents a promising and straightforward alternative technique, enabling non-invasive monitoring of patient activity. METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted with patients under assisted mechanical ventilation, who were scheduled for elective bronchoscopy. Airway flow and pressure, esophageal/gastric pressures and sEMG of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles were recorded at four levels of pressure support ventilation. Patient efforts were quantified via the [Formula: see text] -time product ([Formula: see text] ), the transdiaphragmatic pressure-time product ([Formula: see text] ) and the EMG-time products (ETP) of the two sEMG channels. To improve the signal-to-noise ratio, a method for automatically selecting the more informative of the sEMG channels was investigated. Correlation between ETP and [Formula: see text] was assessed by determining a neuromechanical conversion factor [Formula: see text] between the two quantities. Moreover, it was investigated whether this scalar can be reliably determined from airway pressure during occlusion maneuvers, thus allowing to quantify inspiratory effort based solely on sEMG measurements. RESULTS: In total, 62 patients with heterogeneous pulmonary diseases were enrolled in the study, 43 of which were included in the data analysis. The ETP of the two sEMG channels was well correlated with [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for diaphragm and intercostal recordings, respectively). The proposed automatic channel selection method improved correlation with [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] ). The neuromechanical conversion factor obtained by fitting ETP to [Formula: see text] varied widely between patients ([Formula: see text] ) and was highly correlated with the scalar determined during occlusions ([Formula: see text] , [Formula: see text] ). The occlusion-based method for deriving [Formula: see text] from ETP showed a breath-wise deviation to [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] across all datasets. CONCLUSION: These results support the use of surface electromyography as a non-invasive alternative for monitoring breath-by-breath inspiratory effort of patients under assisted mechanical ventilation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13054-021-03833-w.