On the spread of deformation potentials in the skin

The spread and magnitude of deformation-induced potentials causing motion artefacts were studied in the skin area around and beneath surface electrodes. When stretching a rectangular skin zone between two plates fixed to the skin the largest potentials were induced in the zone. The magnitude of the potentials decreased outside the zone with the distance from the zone. Large individual variations resulted in high standard deviations. Different electrodes positioned at equal distances from the zone did not give potentials of the same size. This can be explained by local variations in skin resistance and elasticity. Stretched-induced potentials were studied under a rigid electrode holder fixed to the skin. The experiment showed that in this way the potentials of could be attenuated but not limited as far as their spred is concerned. Pressure-induced potentials were recorded with a large standard deviation and no significant difference between measurement points in the deformed skin area. It seems likely that the potential spread is a consequence of successively decreasing deformation. Electrotonic dispersion of deformation potentials does not seem to be the cause of the spread of stretch potentials in the skin.

[1]  O. H. Schmitt,et al.  Report of committee on electrocardiography, American Heart Association. Recommendations for standardization of leads and of specifications for instruments in electrocardiography and vectorcardiography. , 1967, Circulation.

[2]  U. Ebbecke Die lokale galvanische Reaktion der Haut , 1921, Pflüger's Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere.

[3]  R. K. Helppi,et al.  Computer analysis of rest and exercise electrocardiograms. , 1972, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[4]  S Odman Potential and impedance variations following skin deformation. , 1981, Medical & biological engineering & computing.

[5]  Otto H. Schmitt,et al.  SYSTEMIC AND RANDOM VARIATIONS OF ECG ELECTRODE SYSTEM IMPEDANCE * , 1970 .

[6]  S Odman On the spread of deformation potentials in the skin. , 1982, Medical & biological engineering & computing.

[7]  P. Ask,et al.  ECG Electrodes: A Study of Electrical and Mechanical Long‐term Properties , 1979, Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica.

[8]  R. Edelberg,et al.  Local electrical response of the skin to deformation. , 1973, Journal of applied physiology.

[9]  Brian Shackel,et al.  Skin-Drilling: A Method of Diminishing Galvanic Skin-Potentials , 1959 .

[10]  J. Webster,et al.  Reducing skin potential motion artefact by skin abrasion , 2006, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[11]  J. Webster,et al.  Minimizing Electrode Motion Artifact by Skin Abrasion , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[12]  S. Ödman,et al.  Movement-induced potentials in surface electrodes , 1982, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[13]  P Zipp,et al.  [Quantification of motion artifacts in surfaceapplied bioelectrodes (author's transl)]. , 1979, Biomedizinische Technik. Biomedical engineering.