Optical fibre sensors embedded into technical textile for a continuous monitoring of patients under Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

The potential impact of optical fiber sensors embedded into medical textiles for the continuous monitoring of the patient during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is presented. In that way, we report on several pure optical sensing technologies for pulse oximetry and respiratory movements monitoring. The technique for pulse oximetry measurement is known as NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy) in a reflectance mode. On the other hand, we tested two different optical based designs for the respiratory motions measurements--a macro bending sensor and a Bragg grating sensor, designed to measure the elongation of thoracic and abdominal circumferences during breathing.