Development of a wearable multi-frequency impedance cardiography device

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases as well as pulmonary oedema can be early diagnosed using vital signs and thoracic bio-impedance. By recording the electrocardiogram (ECG) and the impedance cardiogram (ICG), vital parameters are captured continuously. The aim of this study is the continuous monitoring of ECG and multi-frequency ICG by a mobile system. A mobile measuring system, based on ‘low-power’ ECG, ICG and an included radio transmission is described. Due to the high component integration, a board size of only 6.5 cm × 5 cm could be realized. The measured data can be transmitted via Bluetooth and visualized on a portable monitor. By using energy-efficient hardware, the system can operate for up to 18 hs with a 3 V battery, continuously sending data via Bluetooth. Longer operating times can be realized by decreased transfer rates. The relative error of the impedance measurement was less than 1%. The ECG and ICG measurements allow an approximate calculation of the heart stroke volume. The ECG and the measured impedance showed a high correlation to commercial devices (r = 0.83, p < 0.05). In addition to commercial devices, the developed system allows a multi-frequency measurement of the thoracic impedance between 5–150 kHz.

• Impedance cardiography
• multi-frequency
• personal healthcare
• portable

Declaration of interest

This work has been supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under the Grant ZIM (AIF FK KF2561908AK3, ‘RheoStim’).