Is it Feasible to Use a Low-Cost Wearable Sensor for Heart Rate Monitoring within an Upper Limb Training in Spinal Cord Injured Patients?: A Pilot Study

Abstract

(1) Background: Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients have impairment in the autonomic nervous system, reflected in the cardiovascular adaption level during the performance of upper limb (UL) activities carried out in the rehabilitation process. This adaption level could be measured from the heart rate (HR) by means of wearable technologies. Therefore, the objective was to analyze the feasibility of using Xiaomi Mi Band 5 wristband (XMB5) for HR monitoring in these patients during the performance of UL activities; (2) Methods: The HR measurements obtained from XMB5 were compared to those obtained by the professional medical equipment Nonin LifeSense II capnograph and pulse oximeter (NLII) in static and dynamic conditions. Then, four healthy people and four cervical SCI patients performed a UL training based on six experimental sessions; (3) Results: the correlation between the HR measurements from XMB5 and NLII devices was strong and positive in healthy people (r = 0.921 and r = 0.941 (p < 0.01) in the static and dynamic conditions, respectively). Then, XMB5 was used within the experimental sessions, and the HR oscillation range measured was significantly higher in healthy individuals than in patients; (4) Conclusions: The XMB5 seems to be feasible for measuring the HR in this biomedical application in SCI patients.

Could the Convergence of Science and Technology Guarantee Human Health in the Future?

“…This could be put into practice by creating new therapeutic compounds against cancer, which could target the intracellular pathways [1], or by producing new nanomaterials that could carry therapeutic compounds [2]. The convergence of science and technology could also be used for the creation of low-cost highly sensitive biosensors used for point-of-care applications, such as monitoring heart rates [3], detecting therapeutic compounds, such as antibiotics in pharmaceutical and clinical samples [4], and as highly sensitive and selective aptasensors [5]. This convergence could also help overcome the problem of low efficiency in conventional in vitro and in vivo models in the development and assessment of new drug formulation using different types of organ-on-chip models [6].…”