IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2023 Sep;70(9):2679-2689. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2023.3262206. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
Musculoskeletal health monitoring is limited in everyday settings where patient symptoms can substantially change - delaying treatment and worsening patient outcomes. Wearable technologies aim to quantify musculoskeletal health outside clinical settings but sensor constraints limit usability. Wearable localized multi-frequency bioimpedance assessment (MFBIA) shows promise for tracking musculoskeletal health but relies on gel electrodes, hindering extended at-home use. Here, we address this need for usable technologies for at-home musculoskeletal health assessment by designing a wearable adhesive-free MFBIA system using textile electrodes in extended uncontrolled mid-activity settings.
An adhesive-free multimodal wearable leg MFBIA system was developed in-lab under realistic conditions (5 participants, 45 measurements). Mid-activity textile and gel electrode MFBIA was compared across multiple compound movements (10 participants). Accuracy in tracking long-term changes in leg MFBIA was assessed by correlating gel and textile MFBIA simultaneously recorded in uncontrolled settings (10 participants, 80+ measurement hours).
Mid-activity MFBIA measurements with textile electrodes agreed highly with (ground truth) gel electrode measurements (average [Formula: see text], featuring <1-Ohm differences (0.618 ± 0.340 Ω) across all movements. Longitudinal MFBIA changes were successfully measured in extended at-home settings (repeated measures r = 0.84). Participant responses found the system to be comfortable and intuitive (8.3/10), and all participants were able to don and operate the system independently.
This work demonstrates wearable textile electrodes can be a viable substitute for gel electrodes when monitoring leg MFBIA in dynamic, uncontrolled settings.
Adhesive-free MFBIA can improve healthcare by enabling robust wearable musculoskeletal health monitoring in at-home and everyday settings.
肌肉骨骼健康监测在患者症状可能发生重大变化的日常环境中受到限制-这会延迟治疗并导致患者预后恶化。可穿戴技术旨在在临床环境之外量化肌肉骨骼健康，但传感器限制了其可用性。可穿戴局部多频生物阻抗评估（MFBIA）在跟踪肌肉骨骼健康方面显示出了前景，但依赖于凝胶电极，限制了其在家中的广泛使用。在这里，我们通过设计一种使用纺织电极的无粘性可穿戴多频生物阻抗评估系统来满足在家中进行肌肉骨骼健康评估的技术可用性需求，该系统可在扩展的不受控制的中度活动环境中使用。
在现实条件下（5 名参与者，45 次测量）在实验室中开发了一种无粘性的多模态可穿戴腿部 MFBIA 系统。在多个复合运动中比较了无粘性多模态可穿戴腿部 MFBIA 与凝胶电极 MFBIA（10 名参与者）。通过在不受控制的环境中同时记录凝胶和纺织 MFBIA 来评估跟踪腿部 MFBIA 长期变化的准确性（10 名参与者，80 多小时的测量）。
使用纺织电极进行的中度活动 MFBIA 测量与（基准）凝胶电极测量高度一致（平均[公式：见文本]，所有运动的差异均小于 1 欧姆（0.618 ± 0.340 Ω）。在扩展的家庭环境中成功测量了 MFBIA 的纵向变化（重复测量 r = 0.84）。参与者的反馈表明该系统舒适且直观（8.3/10），并且所有参与者都能够独立穿戴和操作该系统。
这项工作表明，在动态、不受控制的环境中监测腿部 MFBIA 时，无粘性 MFBIA 可以使用纺织电极作为凝胶电极的可行替代品。
无粘性 MFBIA 可以通过在家庭和日常环境中实现强大的可穿戴肌肉骨骼健康监测来改善医疗保健。
