Measurement of heart rate and respiratory rate using a textile-based wearable device in heart failure patients

Changes in heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RespR) may be used as markers of early decompensation in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients monitored at home. Aiming at improving quality of care and at reducing hospitalization rate and health care costs in CHF, progress in technology has led to the development of small portable and even wearable devices for the acquisition and transmission of relevant vital signs to a remote monitoring centre. This paper describes a signal acquisition and processing system, based on a wearable textile-based device with sensors for the measurement of one-lead ECG and chest movement, and focuses on the algorithms for HR and RespR evaluation. An electronic board collects and transmits these signals to a PDA, which sends them via Wi-Fi to a home gateway where the HR and the RespR time series are produced. The home gateway packs the data with other vital signs collected by using different devices and sends them in XML format to a central repository where a clinical decision support system can use them for the detection of early decompensation episodes. The system has successfully overcome a preliminary test phase and is ready for more extensive tests in a real clinical environment.