Wireless Monitoring of Vascular Pressure Using CB-PDMS Based Flexible Strain Sensor

Rising pressure within a vascular graft can signal impending failure caused by stenosis or thrombosis, and early detection can improve surgical salvage outcomes. To enable regular graft pressure monitoring, we developed a thin flexible pulsation sensor (FPS) with wireless data readout. A conductive polymer sensing layer is attached to a flexible circuit board and then encapsulated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for biocompatibility. Due to the FPS’ outstanding flexibility in comparison to natural arteries, veins, and synthetic vascular grafts, it can be wrapped around target conduits to monitor blood pressure for short-term surgical and long-term implantation purposes. In this study, we analyze the power spectrum of the FPS data to determine the ideal bandwidth of the wireless FPS device to preserve heart rate and hemodynamic waveforms while rejecting noise. The strain response of FPS wrapped around silicone tube, vascular graft and artery was simulated using COMSOL®, showing a linear relationship between pressure and FPS strain. The optimized bandpass filter of 0.2-10 Hz was simulated and implemented on a flexible polyimide circuit board. The circuit board also included a low- power microcontroller for data conversion and transmission via simple 4-MHz on-off keying. The performance of the prototype was evaluated by recording wireless data from a vascular phantom under different pressure and flow settings. The results indicate that the peak-to-peak FPS voltage responds linearly to RMS blood pressure and systolic-diastolic pressure.Clinical Relevance— Early detection of a failing vascular graft could leverage sensors for near real-time monitoring. The presented wireless flexible sensor measures and transmits vessel distension data as a proxy for internal lumen pressure.