Knitted bioclothes for cardiopulmonary monitoring

A new concept in healthcare, aimed to provide continuous remote monitoring of user vital signs, is emerging. An innovative system named WEALTHY is presented, where conducting and piezoresistive materials in form of fiber and yarn are integrated and used as sensor and electrode elements. The simultaneous recording of vital signs allows parameters' extrapolation and inter-signal elaboration that contribute to produce alert messages and synoptic patient table. The system will assist cardiac patients during rehabilitation, not only by caring physicians to have an accurate description of clinical status of the patient at fixed and repeated time points in order to tailor the best medical treatment for long term care, but will also allow the patient to be continuously followed during selected time intervals, such as during physical activity or occurrence of symptoms, to discover potential threats and generate appropriate alerts to patient, physician or emergency medical systems.

[1]  B Ghelarducci,et al.  Contribution of the cerebellar vermis to cardiovascular control. , 1996, Journal of the autonomic nervous system.

[2]  Enzo Pasquale Scilingo,et al.  Sensing Threads and Fabrics for Monitoring Body Kinematic and Vital Signs , 2001 .

[3]  Federico Lorussi,et al.  From sensitive fabrics to distributed wearable sensors , 2000, Smart Structures.

[4]  D. De Rossi,et al.  Monitoring body kinematics and gesture through sensing fabrics , 2000, 1st Annual International IEEE-EMBS Special Topic Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology. Proceedings (Cat. No.00EX451).

[5]  A Gemignani,et al.  Changes in autonomic and EEG patterns induced by hypnotic imagination of aversive stimuli in man , 2000, Brain Research Bulletin.