Soft wireless sternal patch to detect systemic vasoconstriction using photoplethysmography
Nathan Zavanelli,
Sung Hoon Lee,
Matthew Guess,
Woon-Hong Yeo
Affiliations
Nathan Zavanelli
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30024, USA; IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Sung Hoon Lee
IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Matthew Guess
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30024, USA; IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Woon-Hong Yeo
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30024, USA; IEN Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Neural Engineering Center, Institute for Materials, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: Vasoconstriction is a crucial physiological process that serves as the body’s primary blood pressure regulation mechanism and a key marker of numerous harmful health conditions. The ability to detect vasoconstriction in real time would be crucial for detecting blood pressure, identifying sympathetic arousals, characterizing patient wellbeing, detecting sickle cell anemia attacks early, and identifying complications caused by hypertension medications. However, vasoconstriction manifests weakly in traditional photoplethysmogram (PPG) measurement locations, like the finger, toe, and ear. Here, we report a wireless, fully integrated, soft sternal patch to capture PPG signals from the sternum, an anatomical region that exhibits a robust vasoconstrictive response. With healthy controls, the device is highly capable of detecting vasoconstriction induced endogenously and exogenously. Furthermore, in overnight trials with patients with sleep apnea, the device shows a high agreement (r2 = 0.74) in vasoconstriction detection with a commercial system, demonstrating its potential use in portable, continuous, long-term vasoconstriction monitoring.
