Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application
The second most common cause of diving fatalities is cardiovascular diseases. Monitoring the cardiovascular system in actual underwater conditions is necessary to gain insights into cardiac activity during immersion and to trigger preventive measures. We developed a wearable, current-based electroca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/12/1277 |
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| author | Stefan Gradl Tobias Cibis Jasmine Lauber Robert Richer Ruslan Rybalko Norman Pfeiffer Heike Leutheuser Markus Wirth Vinzenz von Tscharner Bjoern M. Eskofier |
| author_facet | Stefan Gradl Tobias Cibis Jasmine Lauber Robert Richer Ruslan Rybalko Norman Pfeiffer Heike Leutheuser Markus Wirth Vinzenz von Tscharner Bjoern M. Eskofier |
| author_sort | Stefan Gradl |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The second most common cause of diving fatalities is cardiovascular diseases. Monitoring the cardiovascular system in actual underwater conditions is necessary to gain insights into cardiac activity during immersion and to trigger preventive measures. We developed a wearable, current-based electrocardiogram (ECG) device in the eco-system of the FitnessSHIRT platform. It can be used for normal/dry ECG measuring purposes but is specifically designed to allow underwater signal acquisition without having to use insulated electrodes. Our design is based on a transimpedance amplifier circuit including active current feedback. We integrated additional cascaded filter components to counter noise characteristics specific to the immersed condition of such a system. The results of the evaluation show that our design is able to deliver high-quality ECG signals underwater with no interferences or loss of signal quality. To further evaluate the applicability of the system, we performed an applied study with it using 12 healthy subjects to examine whether differences in the heart rate variability exist between sitting and supine positions of the human body immersed in water and outside of it. We saw significant differences, for example, in the RMSSD and SDSD between sitting outside the water (36 ms) and sitting immersed in water (76 ms) and the pNN50 outside the water (6.4%) and immersed in water (18.2%). The power spectral density for the sitting positions in the TP and HF increased significantly during water immersion while the LF/HF decreased significantly. No significant changes were found for the supine position. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:09:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6533ea156ece48c0a7c72ccefbd9d798 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:09:18Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-6533ea156ece48c0a7c72ccefbd9d7982022-12-21T23:07:02ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172017-12-01712127710.3390/app7121277app7121277Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater ApplicationStefan Gradl0Tobias Cibis1Jasmine Lauber2Robert Richer3Ruslan Rybalko4Norman Pfeiffer5Heike Leutheuser6Markus Wirth7Vinzenz von Tscharner8Bjoern M. Eskofier9Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Am Wolfsmantel 33, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Am Wolfsmantel 33, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyHuman Performance Lab, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaMachine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Immerwahrstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, GermanyThe second most common cause of diving fatalities is cardiovascular diseases. Monitoring the cardiovascular system in actual underwater conditions is necessary to gain insights into cardiac activity during immersion and to trigger preventive measures. We developed a wearable, current-based electrocardiogram (ECG) device in the eco-system of the FitnessSHIRT platform. It can be used for normal/dry ECG measuring purposes but is specifically designed to allow underwater signal acquisition without having to use insulated electrodes. Our design is based on a transimpedance amplifier circuit including active current feedback. We integrated additional cascaded filter components to counter noise characteristics specific to the immersed condition of such a system. The results of the evaluation show that our design is able to deliver high-quality ECG signals underwater with no interferences or loss of signal quality. To further evaluate the applicability of the system, we performed an applied study with it using 12 healthy subjects to examine whether differences in the heart rate variability exist between sitting and supine positions of the human body immersed in water and outside of it. We saw significant differences, for example, in the RMSSD and SDSD between sitting outside the water (36 ms) and sitting immersed in water (76 ms) and the pNN50 outside the water (6.4%) and immersed in water (18.2%). The power spectral density for the sitting positions in the TP and HF increased significantly during water immersion while the LF/HF decreased significantly. No significant changes were found for the supine position.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/12/1277ECGimmersionunderwater technology |
| spellingShingle | Stefan Gradl Tobias Cibis Jasmine Lauber Robert Richer Ruslan Rybalko Norman Pfeiffer Heike Leutheuser Markus Wirth Vinzenz von Tscharner Bjoern M. Eskofier Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application Applied Sciences ECG immersion underwater technology |
| title | Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application |
| title_full | Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application |
| title_fullStr | Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application |
| title_short | Wearable Current-Based ECG Monitoring System with Non-Insulated Electrodes for Underwater Application |
| title_sort | wearable current based ecg monitoring system with non insulated electrodes for underwater application |
| topic | ECG immersion underwater technology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/12/1277 |
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