The days of hooking heart patients up to monitors that effectively tie them to their hospital beds could be numbered.
Scientists in Spain say they have developed intelligent T-shirts that monitor both a person's heart rate and temperature, which could be on sale within six months.
The smart clothing is made from conductive 'e-textiles' which have electrodes integrated into the fabric. This is used to measure a person's heart rate and can even take an ECG.
The raw data is collected by an 'acquisition device' (AD) worn around the neck under the T-shirt, which sends it on wirelessly to a management system, which interprets the results.
The AD also contains a thermometer that presses against the skin and an accelerometer, which reveals if a patient is lying down or sitting up and how active they are.
'The idea of it is to be non-intrusive,' said developer Jose Ignacio Moreno, from Carlos III University in Madrid.
'The patient can be monitored in real-time without any cables due to the wireless platform, so they can stay in bed or walk around as they wish.'
The system also has an alarm that doctors can tailor to each patient so that it emits a warning if their temperature or heart rate increases to a dangerous level for them.
Under the surface: The thermometer and accelerometer are carried on a device worn around the neck
Trial: Five patients were tracked using the Lobin healthcare system. Both their temperature and heart rate were monitored
The close-fitting T-shirt made from 'e-textile' material developed by the company Textronics, can even be put in the wash, which is a useful quality for eliminating any hospital bugs.
The user-friendly unit, called the Lobin healthcare-monitoring system, was created over 18months by four Spanish companies in partnership with Jose Moreno, Gregorio Lopez, and Victor Custodio at Carlos III University in Madrid.
It was tested in 2010 by five patients at the Cardiology Unit of La Paz Hospital in Madrid.
The researchers said the three-month trial yielded promising results that were comparable to traditional monitors as long as the patient didn't make sudden movements such as jumping.
KEEPING TRACK OF PATIENTS
LOCATION
Doctors can track where several patients are in a hospital at once thanks to a specially-designed locating system.
Beacons are set up around the hospital that send signals periodically using fixed transmission power.
The acquisition device turns itself on every nine seconds and receives the signal from the various beacons.
It sends this information on to a subsystem that then calculates where the patient is using an algorithm.
ECG
Readings of the heart's electrical activity are taken by pairs of electrodes in the material every 4miliseconds.
The acquisition device collects 65 ECG samples before sending them on to the management system, which then interprets the information.
A resulting ECG graph reveals if there are any problems with the heart's rhythm.
'In the short-term the T-shirt does not aim to replace conventional ECG devices. However, the T-shirt can be used to monitor patients' status over longer periods of time,' the scientists said.
They said in the future the device would allow doctors to monitor patients at home and so reduce the amount of time they would need to stay in hospital.
It could also lead to early diagnosis of heart abnormalities in sportsmen.
The Carlos III University scientists, said: 'Some additional tests need still to be performed in order to fine tune the platform.
'But we expect the prototype to become a commercial product within six to 12 months.
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