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Main Authors: Ouroutzoglou, Michail, Zhao, Mingmin, Hellerstein, Joshua, Rahul, Hariharan, Badic, Asima, Kim, Brian S., Katabi, Dina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04896
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author Ouroutzoglou, Michail
Zhao, Mingmin
Hellerstein, Joshua
Rahul, Hariharan
Badic, Asima
Kim, Brian S.
Katabi, Dina
author_facet Ouroutzoglou, Michail
Zhao, Mingmin
Hellerstein, Joshua
Rahul, Hariharan
Badic, Asima
Kim, Brian S.
Katabi, Dina
contents 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.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_04896
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantifying Itch and its Impact on Sleep Using Machine Learning and Radio Signals
Ouroutzoglou, Michail
Zhao, Mingmin
Hellerstein, Joshua
Rahul, Hariharan
Badic, Asima
Kim, Brian S.
Katabi, Dina
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
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.
title Quantifying Itch and its Impact on Sleep Using Machine Learning and Radio Signals
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04896