Wearable ECG Monitoring System for Screening of Cardiac Activities

Abstract

The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important tool in cardiac healthcare monitoring newlineDifferent kinds of multi-channel ECG acquisition systems have been developed over a newlineperiod of time.Currently, most of the available devices in clinical settings are tagged with newlinehigh costs and are not easily accessible for screening a large number of population. newlineFurther, these systems are not portable and difficult to use in wearable ECG monitoring newlineapplications. This research study proposes a wearable textile electrodes-based ECG newlinemonitoring framework implementation using an embedded real-time system for newlinerecording and screening of cardiac activities. A portable lab-based CARDIac signal newlinerecording Framework (CARDIF) was developed usinga real-time embedded processor newlineby employing a virtual instrumentation platform. The proposed CARDIF framework aids newlinein ECG signal acquisition and processing to derive important clinical features, which newlinegreatly helps in cardiac screening of masses. As a part of CARDIF, a novel kind of newlinewoven conductive textile sensors were designed and tested the suitability of these newlineelectrodes to acquire ECG signals during cardiac screening activities. The skin-contact newlineimpedance characteristics of the proposed newly designed textile electrodes was newlineevaluated across different age groups. The performance of textile electrodes was assessed newlineand compared with the standard Ag/AgCl disposable electrodes using a clinical grade newlinewired RMS ECG system. The cardiac activities were assessed in wireless mode with newlinetextile electrodes using the implemented portable ECG system and the results were newlinecompared with the standard wireless ECG system (Bionomadix). The parameters such as newlineBPM (beats per minute), HRV (heart rate variability) and R-to-R intervals were newlinecalculated for the induced cardiac activities and the same were compared with the newlineclinically validated standard ECG system. The obtained ECG recordings were inspected newlinevisually for qualitative assessment and quantitative assessment was performed using newlinestatistical measu