FBG-based smart textiles for continuous monitoring of respiratory movements for healthcare applications

Abstract

The potential impact of optical fiber sensors embedded into medical textiles for the continuous monitoring of the patients is presented. We report on a novel non-intrusive optical sensing technology designed to measure the elongation due to abdominal and thoracic motions during breathing. The developed sensor can successfully sense textile elongation between 0.1 % and 5 %, while maintaining the stretching properties of the textile substrates for a good comfort of the patient. The solution prototyped shows a high stability and good reproducibility allowing consideration of a mobile or static application with an easier integration in all kinds of garment by stitching the sensor to the garment. The sensor is coupled to a compact, real time and accurate monitoring system which could be interfaced to a conventional monitor for medical application or to a wireless system for all mobile and ambulatory applications.

Fiber Bragg grating-based sensor for monitoring respiration and heart activity during magnetic resonance imaging examinations

“…The largest group of publications has been presented by the research team that worked on the OFSETH project. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] They developed three different fiber-optic designs, all textile-based: an FBG sensor, a macrobending sensor, and an optical time domain reflectometry sensor. Their sensors measure elongations of the abdominal circumference during breathing movements and target the monitoring of sedated or anaesthetized patients under MRI.…”

“…Similar techniques for breath detection have been demonstrated by other groups, but their sensors are embedded into special textile belts or vests to be fixed to the monitored person's body. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] The sensor proposed in this paper is configured for measurements that do not require any special wearable textiles, thereby avoiding the need to carry out processes for preparing the patient for monitoring. The solution closest to the proposed sensor is one comprising a 12-element FBG array embedded into a bed, 40 although only laboratory trials evaluating the RR detection have been carried out so far.…”

Ubiquitous Health Monitoring: Integration of Wearable Sensors, Novel Sensing Techniques, and Body Sensor Networks

“…Among the numerous types of sensing methods with fiber optics [52][53][54][55], Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor has the advantage of easy implementation in terms of its size and stability. For example, FBG sensor has been used to measure respiration during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan [56][57][58]. In this scenario, the optical fiber (sensor) is interwoven into the patient's garment, while the bench-top light source and photodiode detector are placed outside the MRI scanner.…”

Fiber-optic sensors for monitoring patient physiological parameters: a review of applicable technologies and relevance to use during magnetic resonance imaging procedures

“…In both cases, FBGs can be embedded in the clothing worn by the patient during monitoring [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122] or mounted in the bed on which the person lies, as shown in Fig. 19.…”

“…The literature provides a number of descriptions in which a single FBG [115][116][117][118] or multiple FBGs [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106]114,[119][120][121][122][123] act as the main sensing elements for acquiring body movements caused by respiratory and/or heart function. In both cases, FBGs can be embedded in the clothing worn by the patient during monitoring [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122] or mounted in the bed on which the person lies, as shown in Fig.…”