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. 2022 Nov 23;12(23):3254.
doi: 10.3390/ani12233254.

A Smart Textile Band Achieves High-Quality Electrocardiograms in Unrestrained Horses

Persephone McCrae  1 , Hannah Spong  1 , Ashley-Ann Rutherford  1 , Vern Osborne  1 , Amin Mahnam  2 , Wendy Pearson  1
Affiliations

A Smart Textile Band Achieves High-Quality Electrocardiograms in Unrestrained Horses

Persephone McCrae et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Electrocardiography (ECG) is an essential tool in assessing equine health and fitness. However, standard ECG devices are expensive and rely on the use of adhesive electrodes, which may become detached and are associated with reduced ECG quality over time. Smart textile electrodes composed of stainless-steel fibers have previously been shown to be a suitable alternative in horses at rest and during exercise. The objective of this study was to compare ECG quality using a smart textile girth band knit with silver and carbon yarns to standard adhesive silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrodes. Simultaneous three-lead ECGs were recorded using a smart textile band and Ag/AgCl electrodes in 22 healthy, mixed-breed horses that were unrestrained in stalls. ECGs were compared using the following quality metrics: Kurtosis (k) value, Kurtosis signal quality index (kSQI), percentage of motion artifacts (%MA), peak signal amplitude, and heart rate (HR). Two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison tests was conducted to compare each metric. No significant differences were found in any of the assessed metrics between the smart textile band and Ag/AgCl electrodes, with the exception of peak amplitude. Kurtosis and kSQI values were excellent for both methods (textile mean k = 21.8 ± 6.1, median kSQI = 0.98 [0.92−1.0]; Ag/AgCl k = 21.2 ± 7.6, kSQI = 0.99 [0.97−1.0]) with <0.5% (<1 min) of the recording being corrupted by MAs for both. This study demonstrates that smart textiles are a practical and reliable alternative to the standard electrodes typically used in ECG monitoring of horses.

Keywords: cardiology; electrocardiogram; equine; smart textile; textile computing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors P.M., H.S. and A.-A.R. hold Mitacs Accelerate fellowships at Myant Inc., the company that produces the textile girth band utilized in this study. A.M. is employed by Myant Inc. No fees were received for the data collection, analysis, or preparation of this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Girth band integrated with smart textile electrodes (light blue).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Electrode locations for textile electrodes (white squares) and Ag/AgCl electrodes (grey circles). The black square (textile) and black circle (Ag/AgCl) indicates the ground electrodes. Each of the three leads (I–III) is defined.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Example of ECG traces obtained simultaneously from the same horse using textile electrodes (top row) and Ag/AgCl electrodes (bottom row) for each of the three traces (I–III).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Kurtosis value (A) and kurtosis signal quality index kSQI, (B) calculated for textile (white) and Ag/AgCl (grey) electrodes for three channels. The red horizontal dotted line indicates a threshold of 5. Ns denotes no significance.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Percentage of motion artifacts for ECG data collected with textile (white) and Ag/AgCl (grey) electrodes. Ns denotes no significance.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Peak signal amplitude measured in mV for ECG data collected with textile (white) and Ag/AgCl (grey) electrodes. Ns denotes no significance. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Heart rate output (beats per minute) for ECG data collected with textile (white) and Ag/AgCl (grey) electrodes. Ns denotes no significance.
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