Design and evaluation of a ubiquitous chest-worn cardiopulmonary monitoring system for healthcare application: a pilot study

Ambulatory recording of physiological data will provide us deep insight into the physical condition of patients and athletes, and assessing treatment effects and training performances. This study presents a miniature wearable cardiopulmonary monitoring system called “Smart Chest Strap,” which consists of an elastic band worn around the user’s chest with integrated sensors, a physiological signals acquisition unit, and a mobile phone. The physiological signals including electrocardiogram, respiratory inductance plethysmograph, and accelerations (ACC) are sampled, digitalized, stored, and simultaneously transmitted to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. A medical validation test with participants performing discontinuous incremental treadmill (0–12 km/h) exercise was conducted. The results indicate nearly perfect correlations (0.999, 0.996, 0.994), small mean bias (0.60 BPM, 0.51 BPM, 0.05 g), and narrow limits of agreement (±2.90 BPM, ±1.81 BPM, ±0.09 g) for heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR), and ACC represented as vector magnitude units (VMUs). There is a general trend of decrease in accuracy, precision, and correlation for HR, BR, and VMU as velocity increases, but these validity statistics are all within acceptable error limits and clinically accepted. The findings demonstrate that the Smart Chest Strap is valid and will have wider applications in healthcare, sports, and scientific research areas.     

基于Android手机的生理参数移动监测系统

本研究设计了一款基于Android手机的人体生理参数移动监测系统。依据心电信号与脉搏波信号的特点,设计硬件采集系统。利用蓝牙无线通信方式,将硬件电路采集的生理信号发送至手机。通过在Android手机上开发的应用程序,实现心电信号和脉搏波信号的数字滤波处理、实时显示、存储及回显等功能。通过测量的脉搏波传导时间建立连续血压计算模型,并与人体血压实测值进行验证测试。最后在多个品牌的Android手机上运行本系统的应用程序,验证该系统的实用性和兼容性。该系统具有体积小巧、成本低、可实时连续监测的优点,实现了连续生理参数监测。     

基于织物电极的非接触便携式睡眠心电监测系统设计

目的 为通过心电信号检测睡眠分区及睡眠呼吸障碍等疾病,设计一种基于织物电极的心电监测系统.方法 使用医用级导电织物电极代替传统电极,可在不与人体接触的情况下实时、准确地采集生理电信号,对被测者进行长时间心电监测.使用ARM11嵌入式系统代替医用主机进行数据处理、波形显示等.采用无线宽带设备代替串口线与预定主机进行通信.结果 该系统可有效降低被测者的不适感,准确检测、处理、记录大量心电数据并通过无线网络实时进行远距离数据交换.结论 该系统使用方便,兼顾可靠性、安全性及舒适性,适用于睡眠分析等长时间心电信号监测.     

基于安卓和蓝牙通信的智能生理监护仪的设计

目的为满足生理监测设备多功能、便携式、网络化的发展需求,本文将生理监测技术和无线通信技术相结合,设计了一款便携式的智能生理监护仪,将多种生理参数的检测通过蓝牙传输到手机,使被监测者行动不受拘束,实时、可移动地获取和传输人体生理参数,满足家庭监护和远程医疗的需求。方法该监测仪主要由MSP430f6638作为主控芯片,包括脉搏波采集电路与心电信号采集电路,单片机分时采集两路信号,进行中值滤波与均值滤波后将信号通过串口通信传输给蓝牙模块,通过蓝牙模块与手机自带的蓝牙进行通信。结果该监护仪包含少量外围电路,只需连接3个心电极与1个血氧探头,加之简单的手机应用操作。通过蓝牙传输,可以通过手机实时显示心率、血氧饱和度、血压等生理参数。结论该生理监护仪结构简单,经济实惠,操作方便,实时监测,提供了一个便携、高效、实时的家居化健康服务平台。     

MEDIC: medical embedded device for individualized care

OBJECTIVE: Presented work highlights the development and initial validation of a medical embedded device for individualized care (MEDIC), which is based on a novel software architecture, enabling sensor management and disease prediction capabilities, and commercially available microelectronic components, sensors and conventional personal digital assistant (PDA) (or a cell phone). METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this paper, we present a general architecture for a wearable sensor system that can be customized to an individual patient's needs. This architecture is based on embedded artificial intelligence that permits autonomous operation, sensor management and inference, and may be applied to a general purpose wearable medical diagnostics. RESULTS: A prototype of the system has been developed based on a standard PDA and wireless sensor nodes equipped with commercially available Bluetooth radio components, permitting real-time streaming of high-bandwidth data from various physiological and contextual sensors. We also present the results of abnormal gait diagnosis using the complete system from our evaluation, and illustrate how the wearable system and its operation can be remotely configured and managed by either enterprise systems or medical personnel at centralized locations. CONCLUSION: By using commercially available hardware components and software architecture presented in this paper, the MEDIC system can be rapidly configured, providing medical researchers with broadband sensor data from remote patients and platform access to best adapt operation for diagnostic operation objectives.     

穿戴式随行监护系统心电信号质量评价研究

穿戴式生理参数监测技术是一种新型的生理监护技术,代表未来监护技术的发展方向,但该类技术应用于临床尚有许多问题亟待解决。本文针对自主研发的穿戴式随行监护系统(SensEcho-5B)的心电信号质量评价问题开展了探索性研究。首先基于模板匹配法开发出一种心电信号质量评价算法,用于心电信号的自动、定量评价,在100名受试者(15名健康人和85名心血管疾病患者)随机抽取的100 h心电信号数据集上进行了算法性能测试。在此基础上使用SensEcho-5B与心电Holter同步采集了30名受试者(7名健康人和23名心血管疾病患者)的24 h心电数据,使用心电信号质量评价算法对两个系统同步记录的心电信号质量进行评价。算法性能测试结果:敏感度为100%,特异度为99.51%,准确率为99.99%。30名受试者的对照试验结果:SensEcho-5B所检测到的心电信号,信号质量较差时间的中位数(Q1,Q3)为8.93(0.84,32.53)min,Holter所检测到的心电信号,信号质量较差时间的中位数(Q1,Q3)为14.75(4.39,35.98)min(秩和检验P=0.133)。研究结果表明,本文提出的心电信号质量评价算法能够对穿戴式随行监护系统的心电信号质量进行有效评价;随行监护系统SensEcho-5B与对照Holter相比,心电信号质量相当。后续研究将进一步在真实临床环境中采集大样本量的随行监护生理数据,并对心电信号质量进行分析和评价,从而使监护系统的性能得到持续优化。     

基于J2ME的多参数智能手机监护界面的设计

目的:本文采用J2ME技术设计一种穿戴式多参数智能手机监护界面.方法:系统在Wireless Toolkit模拟环境下进行了仿真实验,并结合穿戴式检测技术和GPRS技术实现多生理参数的远程监护.结果:系统可以实时检测心电、心率、血压、体温以及血氧饱和度,具有数据分析、异常报警等功能.最后将参数传至智能手持设备,并能与医疗服务中心站建立远程通信.结论:实验结果表明系统具有移植性强、简单易用、响应速度快等优点.本系统有望实现3G时代下的重大医疗应用并为远程医疗的进一步研究提供基础.     

A comprehensive survey of wearable and wireless ECG monitoring systems for older adults

Wearable health monitoring is an emerging technology for continuous monitoring of vital signs including the electrocardiogram (ECG). This signal is widely adopted to diagnose and assess major health risks and chronic cardiac diseases. This paper focuses on reviewing wearable ECG monitoring systems in the form of wireless, mobile and remote technologies related to older adults. Furthermore, the efficiency, user acceptability, strategies and recommendations on improving current ECG monitoring systems with an overview of the design and modelling are presented. In this paper, over 120 ECG monitoring systems were reviewed and classified into smart wearable, wireless, mobile ECG monitoring systems with related signal processing algorithms. The results of the review suggest that most research in wearable ECG monitoring systems focus on the older adults and this technology has been adopted in aged care facilitates. Moreover, it is shown that how mobile telemedicine systems have evolved and how advances in wearable wireless textile-based systems could ensure better quality of healthcare delivery. The main drawbacks of deployed ECG monitoring systems including imposed limitations on patients, short battery life, lack of user acceptability and medical professional’s feedback, and lack of security and privacy of essential data have been also discussed.     

基于无线能量传输技术的植入式动物生理参数遥测系统

目的 为长期连续监测动物生理参数,设计并实现了一种基于无线能量传输技术的植入式遥测系统.方法 系统由无线能量传输设备、植入式微型电子胶囊、数据记录仪、数据处理软件组成.胶囊尺寸为13.06 mm×30.90 mm,重6.38 g,功耗约150 mW.结果 模拟实验验证了该植入式遥测系统能够监测心电、体温和血压.选用新西兰兔进行活体实验,测得体温范围为37.2～37.3℃,基线噪声为0.1℃,血压范围为74～83 mmHg,基线噪声为3 mmHg.结论 模拟实验和动物活体实验证明基于无线能量传输技术的植入式动物生理参数遥测系统能够比较准确地监测动物的心电、体温和血压等参数.     

myBrain: a novel EEG embedded system for epilepsy monitoring

The World Health Organisation has pointed that a successful health care delivery, requires effective medical devices as tools for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Several studies have concluded that longer monitoring periods and outpatient settings might increase diagnosis accuracy and success rate of treatment selection. The long-term monitoring of epileptic patients through electroencephalography (EEG) has been considered a powerful tool to improve the diagnosis, disease classification, and treatment of patients with such condition. This work presents the development of a wireless and wearable EEG acquisition platform suitable for both long-term and short-term monitoring in inpatient and outpatient settings. The developed platform features 32 passive dry electrodes, analogue-to-digital signal conversion with 24-bit resolution and a variable sampling frequency from 250?Hz to 1000?Hz per channel, embedded in a stand-alone module. A computer-on-module embedded system runs a Linux^® operating system that rules the interface between two software frameworks, which interact to satisfy the real-time constraints of signal acquisition as well as parallel recording, processing and wireless data transmission. A textile structure was developed to accommodate all components. Platform performance was evaluated in terms of hardware, software and signal quality. The electrodes were characterised through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the operating system performance running an epileptic discrimination algorithm was evaluated. Signal quality was thoroughly assessed in two different approaches: playback of EEG reference signals and benchmarking with a clinical-grade EEG system in alpha-wave replacement and steady-state visual evoked potential paradigms. The proposed platform seems to efficiently monitor epileptic patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings and paves the way to new ambulatory clinical regimens as well as non-clinical EEG applications.     

Development of a secure body area network for a wearable physiological monitoring system using a PSoC processor

Wearable physiological monitoring systems have gained popularity in the recent years due to their ability to continuously monitor physiological signals, thereby making them suitable for home-healthcare applications. The electrocardiogram (ECG), phonocardiogram (PCG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals have been studied and it has been observed that there is a correlation between the three signals. This paper proposes the development of a secure body area network (BAN), for a wearable physiological monitoring system. The BAN is composed of three nodes, for ECG, PPG and PCG signals. The peak-peak distances of these signals are calculated first, in the coordinator of BAN. The coordinator is designed in such a manner that signals from it are transmitted to a monitoring station, only if the difference between the peak-peak distances of both ECG-PPG signals and ECG-PCG signals fall below a threshold. The entire operation of the coordinator is implemented using a real-time processor, Cypress(?) Programmable System on Chip (PSoC).     

Heterogeneous computer network for real-time hemodynamic signal processing

A computer network is described that allows real-time processing, graphical monitoring and off-line analysis of blood pressure, nervous activity and Doppler signals recorded in conscious rats. Real-time processing is performed by an acquisition station using a powerful microprocessor, allowing extraction and storage of several characteristic parameters from each cardiac cycle and real-time graphical monitoring. The experimenter can thereby follow the time evolution of the hemodynamic parameters. Experimental data are sent through the local network to a workstation that ensures off-line processing such as chronograms, histograms and statistical analyses.     

ECG-based wireless home infant apnoea monitor

A safe and wireless system for infant apnoea monitoring and treatment is proposed. It consists of two separate modules that detect apnoea based on a microcontroller processing and transmitting signals to the remote unit using wireless communication arrangement. Depending on the ECG signal, this system records the infant's heart and respiratory rates. Recognition of the consecutive QRS complexes within the ECG signal helps in calculating these vitals. Abnormal breathing rate or heart rate (apnoea) triggers both an alarm system on the remote unit to inform parents of this abnormality and a treatment device that stimulates the infant to breathe using vibration transducer. Different ECG signals from the MIT-Physionet database were used to test the prototype. The system successfully extracted, analysed and transmitted required vitals and decisions to the receiving unit. Finally, the system was bench tested on 25 adult volunteers and 12 young children; voluntarily cessations of breathing were detected successfully for all subjects.     

Stress and fitness monitoring embedded on a modern telematics platform

Lack of regular physical activity and high stress levels are the leading causes of several illnesses. There is thus a real need for a personal low-cost and mobile monitoring solution over extended periods to prevent health risks. Based on the above fact, this article presents a system capable of estimating and monitoring both stress and fitness levels without a physical consultation of a medical specialist. The system consists of three main subcomponents: a mobile real-time acquisition of physiological as well as subjective data, an expert model for stress and fitness estimations based on physiological signals collected from wireless vital sensors, and a secure and scalable telematics platform on which the entire system is embedded. Features and tasks performed by the telematics platform will be presented. The experimental part of the work involved a representative number of subjects. Results for 110 subjects whose fitness levels were assessed at different periods of the year and 50 individuals whose stress scores were assessed at different times of the day showed a high correlation of the estimated values with the true ones. The application of such a low-cost monitoring system will improve the quality of service in preventive medicine.     

水上运动项目多参数实时监测系统研究和实现

水上运动项目多参数实时监测系统,将无线传感器网络(WSN)技术应用于水上运动项目多参数(船速、桨栓压力,心率等参数)监测和分析。系统包括前端传感器对信号的采集和处理、ZigBee无线传输、计算机(UMPC)终端的可视化界面分析和处理等。该系统可以将训练中运动员的心率、桨栓力和船速等指标实时生动的反映在教练手中,以便教练根据实际情况做出最及时的训练安排和调整,有效地提高运动员训练的效率和比赛竞争力。     

Assessing post-anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ambulation using wireless wearable integrated sensors

Abstract

A hardware/software co-design for assessing post-Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction ambulation is presented. The knee kinematics and neuromuscular data during walking (2–6?km?h^?1) have been acquired using wireless wearable motion and electromyography (EMG) sensors, respectively. These signals were integrated by superimposition and mixed signals processing techniques in order to provide visual analyses of bio-signals and identification of the recovery progress of subjects. Monitoring overlapped signals simultaneously helps in detecting variability and correlation of knee joint dynamics and muscles activities for an individual subject as well as for a group. The recovery stages of subjects have been identified based on combined features (knee flexion/extension and EMG signals) using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The proposed system has been validated for 28 test subjects (healthy and ACL-reconstructed). Results of ANFIS showed that the ambulation data can be used to distinguish subjects at different levels of recuperation after ACL reconstruction.     

A wearable mobihealth care system supporting real-time diagnosis and alarm

This paper describes a wearable mobihealth care system aiming at providing long-term continuous monitoring of vital signs for high-risk cardiovascular patients. We use a portable patient unit (PPU) and a wearable shirt (WS) to monitor electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration (acquired with respiratory inductive plethysmography, RIP), and activity. Owing to integrating fabric sensors and electrodes endowed with electro-physical properties into the WS, long-term continuous monitoring can be realized without making patients feel uncomfortable and restricting their mobility. The PPU analyzes physiological signals in real time and determines whether the patient is in danger or needs external help. The PPU will alert the patient and an emergency call will be automatically established with a medical service center (MSC) when life-threatening arrhythmias or falls are detected. With advanced gpsOne technology, the patient can be located and rescued immediately whether he/she is indoors or outdoors in case of emergency.     

基于TCP/IP协议的多床位远程监护系统的设计

目的：建立一个基于TCP/IP协议的多床位远程生理参数监护系统,对常年卧床的老龄患者进行生理参数的实时监测,为家庭、社区及基层医疗机构提供远程监护和及时的医疗救护。方法：在医用护理床上加入生理参数监护模块,床边配置平板电脑作为上位机和人机交互界面,上位机与监护模块之间通过RS232串口通信,构成独立的床边监护终端。利用网络交换设备将多个床边监护终端与中心监护基站相连结,分别开发客户端和服务器端程序,采用基于TCP/IP的客户端/服务端Socket网络通信协议实现生理参数数据传输与远程监护控制。并在中心监护基站上利用数据库同步技术,设计了可查询病史的电子病历。结果：各床边监护终端既可独立工作,又可接入网络,与中心监护基站建立起C/S模式的多参数生理监护局域网系统。结论：系统可以根据实际需要灵活配置,利用现有的电脑和网络设备就可以实现生理信息实时传输与远程控制,适应当前新的医学模式。不但可以实现疾病院前早期预防、早期诊断,同时可以有效降低医疗成本,提高医护人员工作效率。     

穿戴式生物传感系统的研究新进展

穿戴式生物传感系统是近年发展起来的一种新型生命参数动态监测系统。该系统通常由无线的小型传感器、手持单元和专家系统构成。其中,穿戴式生物传感器和数据分析处理部分是生物传感系统中的两大技术。其研究发展分基础和应用两方面。在未来的发展中,穿戴式生物传感器将与多学科相结合并向小型化、智能化方向发展。     

穿戴式生理参数综合测量系统前端电路设计

目前国内用于研究情绪识别的生理信号多是基于现有的生理信号采集仪器,这些仪器体积较大,虽然精度高但不能随身携带。本文分析了情绪研究中常见的生理参数并从中选择了5种最常用的参数,利用集成化的传感器和自主设计的检测电路以及无线通信技术,实现了一种植入智能服饰的便携移动式测量装置。该装置能够实时采集穿戴者的生理信息,并且采集到的信号轮廓清晰、噪声小,能够有效跟随生理参数的变化。