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Volpes G, Valenti S, Genova G, Barà C, Parisi A, Faes L, Busacca A, Pernice R. Wearable Ring-Shaped Biomedical Device for Physiological Monitoring through Finger-Based Acquisition of Electrocardiographic, Photoplethysmographic, and Galvanic Skin Response Signals: Design and Preliminary Measurements. BIOSENSORS 2024; 14:205. [PMID: 38667198 PMCID: PMC11048376 DOI: 10.3390/bios14040205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2024] [Revised: 04/12/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Wearable health devices (WHDs) are rapidly gaining ground in the biomedical field due to their ability to monitor the individual physiological state in everyday life scenarios, while providing a comfortable wear experience. This study introduces a novel wearable biomedical device capable of synchronously acquiring electrocardiographic (ECG), photoplethysmographic (PPG), galvanic skin response (GSR) and motion signals. The device has been specifically designed to be worn on a finger, enabling the acquisition of all biosignals directly on the fingertips, offering the significant advantage of being very comfortable and easy to be employed by the users. The simultaneous acquisition of different biosignals allows the extraction of important physiological indices, such as heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV), pulse arrival time (PAT), GSR level, blood oxygenation level (SpO2), and respiratory rate, as well as motion detection, enabling the assessment of physiological states, together with the detection of potential physical and mental stress conditions. Preliminary measurements have been conducted on healthy subjects using a measurement protocol consisting of resting states (i.e., SUPINE and SIT) alternated with physiological stress conditions (i.e., STAND and WALK). Statistical analyses have been carried out among the distributions of the physiological indices extracted in time, frequency, and information domains, evaluated under different physiological conditions. The results of our analyses demonstrate the capability of the device to detect changes between rest and stress conditions, thereby encouraging its use for assessing individuals' physiological state. Furthermore, the possibility of performing synchronous acquisitions of PPG and ECG signals has allowed us to compare HRV and pulse rate variability (PRV) indices, so as to corroborate the reliability of PRV analysis under stationary physical conditions. Finally, the study confirms the already known limitations of wearable devices during physical activities, suggesting the use of algorithms for motion artifact correction.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Riccardo Pernice
- Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 9, 90128 Palermo, Italy; (G.V.); (S.V.); (G.G.); (C.B.); (A.P.); (L.F.); (A.B.)
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Tu H, Li X, Lin X, Lang C, Gao Y. Washable and Flexible Screen-Printed Ag/AgCl Electrode on Textiles for ECG Monitoring. Polymers (Basel) 2023; 15:3665. [PMID: 37765519 PMCID: PMC10538005 DOI: 10.3390/polym15183665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 08/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes are important sensors for detecting heart disease whose performance determines the validity and accuracy of the collected original ECG signals. Due to the large drawbacks (e.g., allergy, shelf life) of traditional commercial gel electrodes, textile electrodes receive widespread attention for their excellent comfortability and breathability. This work demonstrated a dry electrode for ECG monitoring fabricated by screen printing silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) conductive ink on ordinary polyester fabric. The results show that the screen-printed textile electrodes have good and stable electrical and electrochemical properties and excellent ECG signal acquisition performance. Furthermore, the resistance of the screen-printed textile electrode is maintained within 0.5 Ω/cm after 5000 bending cycles or 20 washing and drying cycles, exhibiting excellent flexibility and durability. This research provides favorable support for the design and preparation of flexible and wearable electrophysiological sensing platforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huating Tu
- College of Medical Instruments, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, China; (H.T.); (X.L.); (X.L.)
- Key Laboratory of Intelligent Textile and Flexible Interconnection of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Xiaoou Li
- College of Medical Instruments, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, China; (H.T.); (X.L.); (X.L.)
| | - Xiangde Lin
- College of Medical Instruments, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, China; (H.T.); (X.L.); (X.L.)
| | - Chenhong Lang
- Key Laboratory of Intelligent Textile and Flexible Interconnection of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Yang Gao
- School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
- State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China
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Bu Y, Kurniawan JF, Prince J, Nguyen AKL, Ho B, Sit NLJ, Pham T, Wu VM, Tjhia B, Shin AJ, Wu TC, Tu XM, Rao R, Coleman TP, Lerman I. A flexible adhesive surface electrode array capable of cervical electroneurography during a sequential autonomic stress challenge. Sci Rep 2022; 12:19467. [PMID: 36376365 PMCID: PMC9663551 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21817-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This study introduces a flexible, adhesive-integrated electrode array that was developed to enable non-invasive monitoring of cervical nerve activity. The device uses silver-silver chloride as the electrode material of choice and combines it with an electrode array consisting of a customized biopotential data acquisition unit and integrated graphical user interface (GUI) for visualization of real-time monitoring. Preliminary testing demonstrated this electrode design can achieve a high signal to noise ratio during cervical neural recordings. To demonstrate the capability of the surface electrodes to detect changes in cervical neuronal activity, the cold-pressor test (CPT) and a timed respiratory challenge were employed as stressors to the autonomic nervous system. This sensor system recording, a new technique, was termed Cervical Electroneurography (CEN). By applying a custom spike sorting algorithm to the electrode measurements, neural activity was classified in two ways: (1) pre-to-post CPT, and (2) during a timed respiratory challenge. Unique to this work: (1) rostral to caudal channel position-specific (cephalad to caudal) firing patterns and (2) cross challenge biotype-specific change in average CEN firing, were observed with both CPT and the timed respiratory challenge. Future work is planned to develop an ambulatory CEN recording device that could provide immediate notification of autonomic nervous system activity changes that might indicate autonomic dysregulation in healthy subjects and clinical disease states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifeng Bu
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
| | - Jonas F Kurniawan
- Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Jacob Prince
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Andrew K L Nguyen
- Department of Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Brandon Ho
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Nathan L J Sit
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Timothy Pham
- Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Vincent M Wu
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Boris Tjhia
- Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Andrew J Shin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Tsung-Chin Wu
- Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Xin M Tu
- Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Ramesh Rao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Todd P Coleman
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Imanuel Lerman
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Center for Stress and Mental Health, VA San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
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