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. 2018 May 26;18(6):1719.
doi: 10.3390/s18061719.

Analysis of Consistency of Transthoracic Bioimpedance Measurements Acquired with Dry Carbon Black PDMS Electrodes, Adhesive Electrodes, and Wet Textile Electrodes

Hugo F Posada-Quintero  1 , Natasa Reljin  2 , Caitlin Eaton-Robb  3 , Yeonsik Noh  4   5 , Jarno Riistama  6 , Ki H Chon  7
Affiliations

Analysis of Consistency of Transthoracic Bioimpedance Measurements Acquired with Dry Carbon Black PDMS Electrodes, Adhesive Electrodes, and Wet Textile Electrodes

Hugo F Posada-Quintero et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

The detection of intrathoracic volume retention could be crucial to the early detection of decompensated heart failure (HF). Transthoracic Bioimpedance (TBI) measurement is an indirect, promising approach to assessing intrathoracic fluid volume. Gel-based adhesive electrodes can produce skin irritation, as the patient needs to place them daily in the same spots. Textile electrodes can reduce skin irritation; however, they inconveniently require wetting before each use and provide poor adherence to the skin. Previously, we developed waterproof reusable dry carbon black polydimethylsiloxane (CB/PDMS) electrodes that exhibited a good response to motion artifacts. We examined whether these CB/PDMS electrodes were suitable sensing components to be embedded into a monitoring vest for measuring TBI and the electrocardiogram (ECG). We recruited N = 20 subjects to collect TBI and ECG data. The TBI parameters were different between the various types of electrodes. Inter-subject variability for copper-mesh CB/PDMS electrodes and Ag/AgCl electrodes was lower compared to textile electrodes, and the intra-subject variability was similar between the copper-mesh CB/PDMS and Ag/AgCl. We concluded that the copper mesh CB/PDMS (CM/CB/PDMS) electrodes are a suitable alternative for textile electrodes for TBI measurements, but with the benefit of better skin adherence and without the requirement of wetting the electrodes, which can often be forgotten by the stressed HF subjects.

Keywords: bioimpedance; electrocardiogram; electrodes; fluid accumulation; heart failure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustrative example of Cole–Cole plot for Transthoracic Bioimpedance (TBI) measurements.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Subject wearing a fluid accumulation vest (FAV): (A) Front of the vest showing the compression strap and (B) measuring device connected via Bluetooth to a smartphone.
Figure 3
Figure 3
FAV and electrodes. (A) The FAV (Philips) modified to include snaps for electrode connections; (B) textile electrodes embedded in a Philips vest; and (C) carbon black polydimethylsiloxane (CB/PDMS) electrodes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Flow charts of inter-subject (A) and intra-subject (B) analyses.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cole–Cole plots obtained for the five types of electrodes, for a given subject.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Bland—Altman plots for the copper mesh carbon black polydimethylsiloxane (CM/CB/PDMS) electrodes vs. textile electrodes. Left: R0; right: RI.
Figure 7
Figure 7
ECG templates for a given subject. Solid line is the resulting template. Dotted lines represent mean ± one standard deviation. Red marks represent maximum and minimum values of reference to compute peak-to-peak amplitude.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Intra-subject measurements for a given subject. Left: textile electrodes. Right: CM/CB/PDMS electrodes.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Results moving the Ag/AgCl electrodes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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