A cascaded CNN-LSTM framework for quantifying respiratory motion from surface electromyographic signals

Abstract Objective. Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals of the diaphragm provide a valuable physiological signal for real-time respiratory monitoring, particularly in clinical applications such as radiotherapy tracking and intensive care, where accurate estimation of respiratory motion is essential. However, these signals are often contaminated by electrocardiographic (ECG) interference. Traditional signal processing methods introduce certain delays while suppressing ECG artifacts and rely on linear assumptions for quantifying respiratory motion, limiting their real-time adaptability and accuracy in clinical applications. This study aims to develop a robust solution for real-time respiratory motion quantification form sEMG signals. Approach. A cascaded deep learning framework was proposed which consisting of (1) a CNN-LSTM hybrid model that isolates respiratory sEMG components and (2) a multi-scale CNN with nonlinear feature abstraction for quantifying respiratory motion. sEMG and respiratory data from 49 subjects was acquired, with 20 subjects for training and 29 for validation. Cross-correlation analysis was performed to assess correlation coefficient between sEMG and respiratory signal. Main results. The proposed method achieved superior correlation with abdominal pressure-derived respiration (Pearson’s r = 0.949 ± 0.030) compared to gating (0.910 ± 0.046) and template subtraction (0.859 ± 0.081) using the same filtering post-processing technology. Notably, the proposed method demonstrated significantly higher correlation with reference signals without requiring any post-processing, highlighting its real-time processing capability in artifact suppression. Significance. This study demonstrates that the proposed deep learning framework can effectively suppress artifacts and reconstruct respiratory waveforms from sEMG, showing potential for real-time respiratory monitoring in clinical settings.