Development of Washable Silver Printed Textile Electrodes for Long-Term ECG Monitoring.

Abreha Bayrau Nigusse,Granch Berhe Tseghai,Desalegn Alemu Mengistie,Lieva Van Langenhove,Benny Malengier

doi:10.3390/s20216233

Abstract

Long-term electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring is very essential for the early detection and treatment of cardiovascular disorders. However, commercially used silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrodes have drawbacks, and these become more obvious during long-term signal monitoring, making them inconvenient for this use. In this study, we developed silver printed textile electrodes from knitted cotton and polyester fabric for ECG monitoring. The surface resistance of printed electrodes was 1.64 Ω/sq for cotton and 1.78 Ω/sq for polyester electrodes. The ECG detection performance of the electrodes was studied by placing three electrodes around the wrist where the electrodes were embedded on an elastic strap with Velcro. The ECG signals collected using textile electrodes had a comparable waveform to those acquired using standard Ag/AgCl electrodes with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 33.10, 30.17, and 33.52 dB for signals collected from cotton, polyester, and Ag/AgCl electrodes, respectively. The signal quality increased as the tightness of the elastic strap increased. Signals acquired at 15 mmHg pressure level with the textile electrodes provided a similar quality to those acquired using standard electrodes. Interestingly, the textile electrodes gave acceptable signal quality even after ten washing cycles.

Highlights

The demand for wearable electronic systems is increasing due to the growing interest of users in taking active control of their health as part of a preventive lifestyle and other applications [1,2].Wearable products contain various types of sensors integrated in watches, wrist bands, belts, garments, and textiles or directly applied on the skin
Ω/sq, respectively.The signals collectedofusing the dry textilecotton electrodes electrodes for continuous surface resistance the silver printed and showed clear R-peaks without any missing and false peaks, which are comparable with the standard
The R-peak amplitudes were 1.28 and 1.26 mV with signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 33.10 and 30.17 dB for cotton and polyester electrodes, respectively, and 1.29 mV and 33.52 dB SNR for the standard Ag/AgCl electrode, showing that the cotton electrode is comparable to the standard electrode, while the polyester electrode showed slightly inferior values due to its slightly higher surface resistance

Summary

Introduction

The demand for wearable electronic systems is increasing due to the growing interest of users in taking active control of their health as part of a preventive lifestyle and other applications [1,2].Wearable products contain various types of sensors integrated in watches, wrist bands, belts, garments, and textiles or directly applied on the skin. Sensors for health-related applications are capable of monitoring physiological parameters like electrocardiography (ECG) [3], electromyography [4], electroencephalography [5], temperature [6], and respiration rate [7]. ECG monitoring is the most common application area of textile-based sensors. ECG is the process of recording the electrical activity of the heart and is one of the most widely used health monitoring methods to diagnose and examine the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which are the leading cause of death worldwide [8,9,10]. Continuous long-term ECG monitoring is very important for early detection and treatment of CVD before they evolve into serious complications [11]. During ECG monitoring, the change in the electrical activity of the heart over time is detected and converted into a signal, which

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Conclusion