Project Materials

PATIENT HEARTBEAT AND TEMPERATURE MONITOR

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The number of heartbeats per unit time is known as heart rate, and it is commonly given in beats per minute (bpm). The human heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to the muscles and removes cell waste from the tissues.

Heart rate can vary depending on the muscles’ requirement to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide, such as during activity or sleep. It also varies greatly between individuals depending on age, fitness, and heredity.

This means that the heart must work faster to supply more oxygen-rich blood. During workout routines, the heartbeat rate provides a clear indication of how effective the activity is for the body.

Because of its superior technology, patient monitoring systems have become one of the most significant advancements in the global health care program. A patient monitoring system uses embedded technology to measure heart rate and body temperature. This technological innovation is critical since many hospitalised patients die from high fevers and heart attacks.

The trend of cardiovascular illness has demonstrated that heart rate plays an important part in determining the likelihood of a heart attack, but an increase in body temperature can cause fever in a patient. In many nations, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.

Most of the time, older people in society are more susceptible to heart disease problems than younger people. For persons who live alone and have no one to monitor their health, this gadget provides a chance for continuous monitoring of their health state; it is designed to monitor and alert doctors about a patient’s heartbeat and temperature. It is designed to provide patients with timely and appropriate health treatment.

Doctors and nurses nowadays find it difficult to stay near to a patient’s bedside in order to check their health. In the past, a large and fixed monitoring gadget was used (primarily in hospitals) to determine a patient’s health state while on a bed.

These monitoring gadgets are only available in hospitals and are constantly placed on the patient’s body. Many of them are not user-friendly, thus doctors and family members must have a portable gadget that can constantly monitor their patients while they are not present.

One of the most important things to monitor on a patient is their body temperature. This refers to the measuring of the body’s ability to create and remove heat. Temperature monitoring is one of the most important indications of normal health.

The human body’s natural tendency is to maintain a restricted, safe temperature range in the face of substantial fluctuations in external temperatures.

Normal human body temperature is determined by the location in the body where it is measured, as well as the time and amount of activity of the individual.

The normal body temperature is 37.0°C ± 0.4°C (98.6°F ± 0.7°F). When the body temperature rises, the blood vessels in the skin expand (dilate) to transport the excess heat to the patient’s skin surface. One may begin to sweat, and when the sweat evaporates, it aids in cooling his or her body.

When one is excessively chilly, the blood vessels narrow (contract), reducing blood flow to the skin to conserve body heat. Some people may experience involuntary shivering as a result of the cold, which is characterised by fast muscle contraction. This increased muscle activity helps to generate more heat.

Under normal conditions, the body temperature remains within a restricted, safe range. Body temperature is controlled by neural feedback mechanisms that predominantly work in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus houses not just the regulatory mechanisms, but also the primary temperature sensors.

Sweating begins almost precisely at a skin temperature of 37°C and increases fast when the skin temperature rises above this number. Under these conditions, the body produces practically constant heat as the skin temperature rises.

If the skin temperature falls below 37°C, a number of mechanisms are triggered to save heat in the body and enhance heat production.

These include: Vasoconstriction to reduce the transfer of heat to the skin. Sweating and shivering are reduced to boost heat generation in the muscles, as is the secretion of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and thyroxin.