All-fiber wireless auscultation garment for cardiopulmonary diagnostics

Daily apparel could enable continuous, noninvasive monitoring of cardiopulmonary health for the early detection and treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases, the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Here we develop an all-fiber wireless auscultation system seamlessly integrated into garments. An ~150-μm-diameter fiber contact microphone is sewn, knitted or woven into clothing to capture deep-body acoustic signals while overcoming acoustic impedance mismatch and electromagnetic noise. An ~500-μm knitted fiber computer enables real-time signal processing and Bluetooth transmission to a mobile device. A clinical study in 10 patients with heart failure and 20 neonates demonstrated cardiopulmonary sound capture, including qualitative examples of pathological acoustic features such as cardiac murmurs, S3 gallops and crackles. Comparative validation against a digital stethoscope confirms the garment's ability to suppress environmental noise for high-fidelity cardiopulmonary sound capture. In addition, the fiber integrated within the garment array enables spatial sound mapping of cardiac and pulmonary abnormalities for localized diagnostics.