The soft wearable system using a multi-sensor configuration achieved a mean absolute error of 0.81 bpm for heart rate estimation compared to standard ECG when placed on the left sternum.
Observational (n=7)
No
Does a soft wearable system based on fiber optic technology accurately measure heart rate compared to ECG in healthy volunteers?
A novel soft wearable system using fiber Bragg gratings accurately measures heart rate via seismocardiography, with optimal performance achieved using a multi-sensor configuration placed horizontally on the left sternum.
Early diagnosis can be crucial to limit both the mortality and economic burden of cardiovascular diseases. Recent developments have focused on the continuous monitoring of cardiac activity for a prompt diagnosis. Nowadays, wearable devices are gaining broad interest for a continuous monitoring of the heart rate (HR). One of the most promising methods to estimate HR is the seismocardiography (SCG) which allows to record the thoracic vibrations with high non-invasiveness in out-of-laboratory settings. Despite significant progress on SCG, the current state-of-the-art lacks both information on standardized sensor positioning and optimization of wearables design. Here, we introduce a soft wearable system (SWS), whose novel design, based on a soft polymer matrix embedding an array of fiber Bragg gratings, provides a good adhesion to the body and enables the simultaneous recording of SCG signals from multiple measuring sites. The feasibility assessment on healthy volunteers revealed that the SWS is a suitable wearable solution for HR monitoring and its performance in HR estimation is strongly influenced by sensor positioning and improved by a multi-sensor configuration. These promising characteristics open the possibility of using the SWS in monitoring patients with cardiac pathologies in clinical (e.g., during cardiac magnetic resonance procedures) and everyday life settings.
Presti et al. (Wed,) conducted a observational in Healthy volunteers (n=7). Soft wearable system (SWS) with multi-sensor FBG array vs. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was evaluated on Mean absolute error (MAE) of heart rate estimation. The soft wearable system using a multi-sensor configuration achieved a mean absolute error of 0.81 bpm for heart rate estimation compared to standard ECG when placed on the left sternum.