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. 2024 Apr 26;24(9):2763.
doi: 10.3390/s24092763.

Measuring Surface Electromyography with Textile Electrodes in a Smart Leg Sleeve

Federica Amitrano  1 , Armando Coccia  1 , Gaetano Pagano  2 , Arcangelo Biancardi  1 , Giuseppe Tombolini  3 , Vito Marsico  4 , Giovanni D'Addio  1
Affiliations

Measuring Surface Electromyography with Textile Electrodes in a Smart Leg Sleeve

Federica Amitrano et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development, and validation of a novel e-textile leg sleeve for non-invasive Surface Electromyography (sEMG) monitoring. This wearable device incorporates e-textile sensors for sEMG signal acquisition from the lower limb muscles, specifically the anterior tibialis and lateral gastrocnemius. Validation was conducted by performing a comparative study with eleven healthy volunteers to evaluate the performance of the e-textile sleeve in acquiring sEMG signals compared to traditional Ag/AgCl electrodes. The results demonstrated strong agreement between the e-textile and conventional methods in measuring descriptive metrics of the signals, including area, power, mean, and root mean square. The paired data t-test did not reveal any statistically significant differences, and the Bland-Altman analysis indicated negligible bias between the measures recorded using the two methods. In addition, this study evaluated the wearability and comfort of the e-textile sleeve using the Comfort Rating Scale (CRS). Overall, the scores confirmed that the proposed device is highly wearable and comfortable, highlighting its suitability for everyday use in patient care.

Keywords: EMG; comfort assessment; comfort rating scale; e-textile; surface electromyography; textile-based electrode; wearable sensors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funding agency had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results’.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The textile electrode consists of three elements: a textile fabric placed on a non-conductive pad and then sewn to a metal clip.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Experimental setup for acquisition of anterior tibialis EMG signal by (a) band with e-textile electrodes and (b) conventional pre-gelled electrodes.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Experimental setup for acquisition of lateral gastrocnemius EMG signal by (a) band with e-textile electrodes and (b) conventional pre-gelled electrodes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Smart textile sleeve: the upper part shows the internal view of the textile electrodes, while the lower part shows the external view connected to the acquisition system.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bland-Altman Plots for parameters related to the Tibialis muscle: (a) Area; (b) Power; (c) Mean and (d) RMS parameters.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bland-Altman Plots for parameters related to the Tibialis muscle: (a) Area; (b) Power; (c) Mean and (d) RMS parameters.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Bland–Altman plots for parameters related to the gastrocnemius muscle: (a) area; (b) power; (c) mean; (d) RMS parameters.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Distribution of CRS scores provided by users.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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