Technological progress, especially in science, has two objectives: improve diagnosis and increase the quality of life of patients.
And luckily and a lot of work, researchers do not stop contributing news.
For example, not long ago cardiologists wondered if there was a way to monitor the behavior of the heart.
And the answer was found by the biophysicist, who gives its name to a now-known device that is essential for the diagnosis of arrhythmias, palpitations and even dizziness or fainting.
With this device, which was launched on the market in the 1960s, specialists obtain relevant information on heart rate and detect whether or not there are changes in its rhythm.
The use of this device, similar in size to a mobile phone, is placed on an outpatient basis and for at least 24 hours.
A more comfortable Holter
However, to improve the traditional Holter, Natalia Guzmana student of the Biomedical Engineering Degree, has created a t-shirt that electrocardiograms continuously.
This design, which started as an idea for a degree course, can help detect heart problems.
As the CEU San Pablo de Madrid student explains to this portal.
“The project consists of developing a T-shirt that performs electrocardiograms on patients. And we achieved it by creating a garment based on textile components for provide the greatest comfort to the subject”.
Visually it is a normal shirt, but it has patches of conductive fabric on the back, sewn with conductive thread that carries this signal that is measuring the electrocardiogram up to the waist.
“For chronic patients”
“The shirt carries the signal to three dry electrodes (similar to a button), connected to a small cable and in turn to an electronic board. And it sends the electrocardiogram to a computer or a mobile device,” he says.
The main advantage of this design is the convenience when recording cardiology data.
“A chronic patient would allow have a relatively normal life within their diseasebeing continuously monitored without impeding their day-to-day activities”.
Guzmán, who is in the third year of Mechanical Engineering, qualifies:
“This initiative had already been carried out, but they did it with electrodes and many cables, so the goal was to redesign the garment making it more functional and much more comfortable for real life“.
The patient would wear this garment, which records the rhythm of the heart, as an undershirt. But it could also be used “in athletes who want to monitor the parameters during their training.”
“The only thing that differentiates it from another type of shirt is the cable that is connected to the electronic board, and that is placed on the belt or on the pants.”
The success has been such that Natalia Guzmán, together with her professor and director of Biomedical Engineering, Abraham Oterothey want to go one step further in the development of another prototype.
And in the next planned advance they intend to get a T-shirt without conductive fabric.
“Right now we are investigating a polymer, which is a chemical compound that would be applied to the shirt in a solution. With this we intend to achieve that, instead of sewing the pieces of conductive fabric on the garment, part of the shirt was itself conductive, to monitor the patient without adding any extra material”.
An important caveat is that this liquid, which would make “the garment conductive” and lighter, needs to be dry in order to “measure the electrocardiogram signal.” Only then does it have the property of conductivity, “to be able to measure the activity of the heart.”
Of course, as Guzmán clarifies, the idea has nothing to do with a treatment. But it does serve “for a follow-up or a diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases“.
Atrial fibrillation, the most frequent arrhythmia
The Holter monitor is indicated for people who suffer from syncope, chest pain at rest or tachycardia of non-standard origin. Also for patients with arrhythmias.
And according to data from the , in Spain they are more than a million people with atrial fibrillation.
This is the most common type of arrhythmia and affects the heart rhythm.
The rhythm of a healthy heart, at rest, should range between 60 and 100 beats per minute. But when the arrhythmia appears, the rhythm can speed up (tachycardia) or slow down (bradycardia).
What are the symptoms of atrial fibrillation?
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Pain and pressure in the chest
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Dizziness or vertigo
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palpitations
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Exhausted
Which is the treatment?
Although the treatment will depend on the severity and frequency of the symptoms. Also, like the existence of other associated cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, congenital heart disease…), it can be:
- cardioversion. Through antiarrhythmic drugs or through electric shocks with a defibrillator in the event that the drug does not take effect.
- Correct associated pathologies and control risk factors.
- Ablation. It is a technique that electrically isolates the pulmonary veins where the arrhythmia originates. They are accessed by introducing a catheter and an electrical current is generated around the affected veins.