Flexible ECG Patch Enables Arrhythmia Detection

An innovative electrocardiogram (ECG) patch monitors single-lead ECG in daily-life conditions, opening new perspectives for cardiovascular disease management.

The IMEC wireless ECG patch is a wearable, wire-free hybrid system that combines electronic assembly on flexible polyimide substrate and integration in textile. This enables flexibility in one dimension and stretchability in the other, required for optimal personal comfort. The patch features a proprietary ultra-low-power bio-potential application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to extract the bio-potential signals produced during the ECG measurements, a commercial microcontroller, and a 2.4 GHz radio link.

The patch can continuously monitor the patient's heart at a sample rate of up to 1 kHz; it sends the results directly to the receiver, or it can analyze the signals locally before sending them by using an algorithm embedded in the system that performs delineation of the ECG signal (the detection of the important electrical waves from the heart). The delineator algorithm achieves excellent results for both sensitivity and predictivity, and covers a broad range of wave morphologies by identifying P, Q, R, S, and T wave peaks and boundaries; since the intervals and amplitudes of these waves contain most of the useful information of the ECG, the delineation provides quick and useful information to the healthcare provider. An additional benefit of the local analysis is the reduction of radio usage, improving the autonomy of the patch; current autonomy with local delineation is 10 days of continuous monitoring. The wireless ECG patch is under development by the Human++ program team at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (Leuven, Belgium).

"Our physiological monitoring systems are based on ultra-low power wireless communication and start to make use of innovative energy harvesting technology,” said Bert Gyselinckx, Human++ program director. "They are finding applications in sleep staging analysis, cardiac arrhythmia detection and epilepsy monitoring. The growing interest from industry worldwide is proven by new partnerships.”

The IMEC Human++ program develops technology for wireless autonomous sensor systems that can be used for health and wellness monitoring. Such systems will for example enable analysis of people with sleep apnea from home or monitor epilepsy patients in an ambulatory setting. The program was launched in 2002. National Semiconductor recently joined the Human++ program, joining other partners at the IMEC Holst Center (Eindhoven; The Netherlands) such as Alcatel-Lucent, ASML, Bekaert, NXP, Philips, Target Compiler Technologies, and Texas Instruments.


Related Links:
IMEC Holst Center
Interuniversity Microelectronics Center