Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Nov 27;1(1):30-39.
doi: 10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa006. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Contact-free sensor signals as a new digital biomarker for cardiovascular disease: chances and challenges

Hugo Saner  1   2 , Samuel Elia Johannes Knobel  1 , Narayan Schuetz  1 , Tobias Nef  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Contact-free sensor signals as a new digital biomarker for cardiovascular disease: chances and challenges

Hugo Saner et al. Eur Heart J Digit Health. .

Abstract

Multiple sensor systems are used to monitor physiological parameters, activities of daily living and behaviour. Digital biomarkers can be extracted and used as indicators for health and disease. Signal acquisition is either by object sensors, wearable sensors, or contact-free sensors including cameras, pressure sensors, non-contact capacitively coupled electrocardiogram (cECG), radar, and passive infrared motion sensors. This review summarizes contemporary knowledge of the use of contact-free sensors for patients with cardiovascular disease and healthy subjects following the PRISMA declaration. Chances and challenges are discussed. Thirty-six publications were rated to be of medium (31) or high (5) relevance. Results are best for monitoring of heart rate and heart rate variability using cardiac vibration, facial camera, or cECG; for respiration using cardiac vibration, cECG, or camera; and for sleep using ballistocardiography. Early results from radar sensors to monitor vital signs are promising. Contact-free sensors are little invasive, well accepted and suitable for long-term monitoring in particular in patient's homes. A major problem are motion artefacts. Results from long-term use in larger patient cohorts are still lacking, but the technology is about to emerge the market and we can expect to see more clinical results in the near future.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Contact-free sensor; Digital biomarkers; Facial camera; Heart rate; Heart rate variability; Heart vibration; Passive infrared motion sensor; Radar; Respiration; Vital signs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Working principle for telemonitoring of patients at risk for cardiovascular diseases. A combination of contact-free, wearable and objectattached sensors can be used to monitor behaviour and physiological parameters. From that information, digital biomarkers can be extracted to deliver care-relevant information to drive patient-specific interventions..
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart of the search and elimination process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Piau A, Wild K, Mattek N, Kaye J.. Current state of digital biomarker technologies for real-life, home-based monitoring of cognitive function for mild cognitive impairment to mild Alzheimer disease and implications for clinical care: systematic review. J Med Internet Res 2019;21:e12785. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Seelye A, Hagler S, Mattek N, Howieson DB, Wild K, Dodge HH, Kayea J.. Computer mouse movement patterns: a potential marker of mild cognitive impairment. Alzheimers Dement (Amst) 2015;1:472. 10.1016/j.dadm.2015.09.006 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Surya Tej M, Ameet Chavan D.. MediKit: IoT based smart healthcare system for effective supervision of patient. IJET 2018;7:1.
    1. Seshadri DR, Li RT, Voos JE, Rowbottom JR, Alfes CM, Zorman CA, Drummond CK. Wearable sensors for monitoring the physiological and biochemical profile of the athlete. NPJ Digit Med, 2019;2:72. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aliamiri A, Shen Y. Deep learning based atrial fibrillation detection using wearable photoplethysmography sensor. In: 2018 IEEE EMBS International Conference on Biomedical & Health Informatics (BHI). IEEE; 2018, pp. 442–445.

LinkOut - more resources