Predicting Vasovagal Reactions to Needles with Anticipatory Facial Temperature Profiles
Rudokaite,Judita Ong,L L Sharon Onal Ertugrul,Itir Janssen,Mart P Huis In 't Veld,Elisabeth M J
Rudokaite,Judita
Ong,L L Sharon
Onal Ertugrul,Itir
Janssen,Mart P
Huis In 't Veld,Elisabeth M J
Abstract
Around one-third of adults are scared of needles, which can result in adverse emotional and physical responses such as dizziness and fainting (e.g. vasovagal reactions; VVR) and consequently, avoidance of healthcare, treatments, and immunizations. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of vasovagal reactions until they escalate, at which time it is too late to intervene. This study aims to investigate whether facial temperature profiles measured in the waiting room, prior to a blood donation, can be used to classify who will and will not experience VVR during the donation. Average temperature profiles from six facial regions were extracted from pre-donation recordings of 193 blood donors, and machine learning was used to classify whether a donor would experience low or high levels of VVR during the donation. An XGBoost classifier was able to classify vasovagal groups from an adverse reaction during a blood donation based on this early facial temperature data, with a sensitivity of 0.87, specificity of 0.84, F1 score of 0.86, and PR-AUC of 0.93. Temperature fluctuations in the area under the nose, chin and forehead have the highest predictive value. This study is the first to demonstrate that it is possible to classify vasovagal responses during a blood donation using temperature profiles.
Description
Funding Information: Financial support was provided by the ZonMW Veni project “FAINT” (project reference: 016.186.020) and Stichting Sanquin Bloedvoorziening (grant PPOC19-12/L2409). Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
Date
2023-06-14
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Research Projects
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Keywords
Needles, Vasovagal Reactions, Blood donation, Facial temperature
Citation
Rudokaite, J, Ong, L L S, Onal Ertugrul, I, Janssen, M P & Huis In 't Veld, E M J 2023, 'Predicting Vasovagal Reactions to Needles with Anticipatory Facial Temperature Profiles', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 9667, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36207-z