Paintable Carbon Nanotube Coating-Based Textronics for Sustained Holter-Type Electrocardiography

Textronic Sensors of Hazardous Gaseous Substances

Toxic materials are a threat in workplaces and the environment, as well as households. In them, gaseous substances are included, especially ones without any colour or fragrance, due to their non-detectability with the human senses. In this article, an attempt was made to find a solution for its detection in various conditions with the use of intelligent textiles. The approach was to perform modification on fifteen materials by screen printing using carbon nanotubes paste with expanded graphite and embroidery with stainless steel thread and then investigate their reaction with risky gases such as acetone, methanol and toluene. Four combinations of samples were tested: before tests, after the washing test and after the alkaline and acidic sweat contact test. Three materials can be highlighted. Para-aramid knitwear which reacted well to all tested gases. The biggest value of sensory percentage response was 144%. Screen-printed linen knitwear showed properly detecting skills after washing test for toluene. The biggest value of sensory percentage response was noted at 186%. The third most promising material was low surface mass cotton knitwear with embroidery which had a visible response at every stage of testing for acetone. The biggest value of sensory percentage response was 94% and the smallest one was 27%. For these three materials, repeated contact with harmful gases was tested. Simulations showed also repeated responses expressed in changes in surface resistance under changed conditions. After analysis, there is a possibility to create textile sensors for the detection of hazardous substances.

Efficacy of Various Dry Electrode-Based ECG Sensors: A Review

Long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring is crucial for detecting and diagnosing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Monitoring cardiac health and activities using efficient, noninvasive, and cost-effective techniques such as ECG can be vital for the early detection of different CVDs. Wet electrode-based traditional ECG techniques come with unavoidable limitations of the altered quality of ECG signals caused by gel volatilization and unwanted noise followed by dermatitis. The limitation related to the wet electrodes for long-term ECG monitoring in static and dynamic postures reminds us of the urgency of a suitable substitute. Dry electrodes promise long-term ECG monitoring with the potential for significant noise reduction. This review discusses traditional and alternative techniques to record ECG in terms of meeting the efficient detection of CVDs by conducting a detailed analysis of different types of dry electrodes along with materials (substrate, support, matrix, and conductive part) used for fabrication, followed by the number of human subjects they have been used for validation. The degradation of these electrodes has also been discussed briefly. This review finds a need for more validation on a sufficient number of subjects and the issue of cost and noise hindering the commercialization of these dry electrodes.

Investigation of Releasing Chamomile Essential Oil from Inserts with Cellulose Agar and Microcrystalline Cellulose Agar Films Used in Biotextronics Systems for Lower Urinary Tract Inflammation Treatment

Lower urinary tract inflammation is a very common problem which occurs particularly in women. That is why the idea of a biotextronics system for preventive and supportive treatment came to be. The system is a kind of a therapeutic clothing in the form of underwear integrated with a four-layer pantiliner with biological active compounds (from chamomile essential oil) immobilized on the insert with a cellulose agar or microcrystalline cellulose agar film. In this research, the outer part of the insert was investigated for its ability to release compounds with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activity under the temperature of the treatment (40 °C). The research was conducted on the day of the insert preparation (day 0) and also after 7, 14, 28, and 56 days to test the ability of the insert to be stored without changing its properties. The results showed that even after 56 days of storage, there are compounds released that are known to have antibacterial activity, such as α-bisabolol. The system requires further tests involving bacteria; however, chamomile essential oil seems to be good substrate for biotextronics systems for preventive and supportive treatment of lower urinary tract inflammations.

Wearable ECG Device and Machine Learning for Heart Monitoring

With cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remaining a leading cause of mortality, wearable devices for monitoring cardiac activity have gained significant, renewed interest among the medical community. This paper introduces an innovative ECG monitoring system based on a single-lead ECG machine, enhanced using machine learning methods. The system only processes and analyzes ECG data, but it can also be used to predict potential heart disease at an early stage. The wearable device was built on the ADS1298 and a microcontroller STM32L151xD. A server module based on the architecture style of the REST API was designed to facilitate interaction with the web-based segment of the system. The module is responsible for receiving data in real time from the microcontroller and delivering this data to the web-based segment of the module. Algorithms for analyzing ECG signals have been developed, including band filter artifact removal, K-means clustering for signal segmentation, and PQRST analysis. Machine learning methods, such as isolation forests, have been employed for ECG anomaly detection. Moreover, a comparative analysis with various machine learning methods, including logistic regression, random forest, SVM, XGBoost, decision forest, and CNNs, was conducted to predict the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. Convoluted neural networks (CNN) showed an accuracy of 0.926, proving their high effectiveness for ECG data processing.

Assessment of Impact of the Surface Modification Techniques on Structural, Biophysical, and Electrically Conductive Properties of Different Fabrics

This article presents studies on the evaluation of the impact of surface modification of cotton, viscose, and polyester fabrics using three techniques (flocking, layer by layer, and screen printing) with materials with electrically conductive properties on their structural, biophysical, and conductive properties. Each tested fabric is characterized by specific biophysical properties. which can be disturbed by various modification methods, therefore, the following tests were carried out in the article: optical microscopy, micro-computed tomography, guarded perspiration heating plate, air permeability, sorption and electrical conductivity tester. The use of screen printing increased the thermal resistance of the cotton woven fabric by 119%, the polyester woven fabric by 156%, and the viscose fabric by 261%. The smallest changes in thermal resistance compared to unmodified textiles were observed in layer by layer modified fabrics and are as follows: -15% (cotton woven fabric), +77% (PES woven fabric), and +80% (viscose woven fabric).

Magneto-Responsive Textiles for Non-Invasive Heating

Magneto-responsive textiles have emerged lately as an important carrier in various fields, including biomedical engineering. To date, most research has been performed on single magnetic fibers and focused mainly on the physical characterization of magnetic textiles. Herein, from simple woven and non-woven textiles we engineered materials with magnetic properties that can become potential candidates for a smart magnetic platform for heating treatments. Experiments were performed on tissue-mimicking materials to test the textiles' heating efficiency in the site of interest. When the heat was induced with magneto-responsive textiles, the temperature increase in tissue-mimicking phantoms depended on several factors, such as the type of basic textile material, the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles deposited on the textile's surface, and the number of layers covering the phantom. The values of temperature elevation, achieved with the use of magnetic textiles, are sufficient for potential application in magnetic hyperthermia therapies and as heating patches or bandages.

Recent Advances and Challenges in Textile Electrodes for Wearable Biopotential Signal Monitoring: A Comprehensive Review

The technology of wearable medical equipment has advanced to the point where it is now possible to monitor the electrocardiogram and electromyogram comfortably at home. The transition from wet Ag/AgCl electrodes to various types of gel-free dry electrodes has made it possible to continuously and accurately monitor the biopotential signals. Fabrics or textiles, which were once meant to protect the human body, have undergone significant development and are now employed as intelligent textile materials for healthcare monitoring. The conductive textile electrodes provide the benefit of being breathable and comfortable. In recent years, there has been a significant advancement in the fabrication of wearable conductive textile electrodes for monitoring biopotential signals. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of the advances in wearable conductive textile electrodes for biopotential signal monitoring. The paper covers various aspects of the technology, including the electrode design, various manufacturing techniques utilised to fabricate wearable smart fabrics, and performance characteristics. The advantages and limitations of various types of textile electrodes are discussed, and key challenges and future research directions are identified. This will allow them to be used to their fullest potential for signal gathering during physical activities such as running, swimming, and other exercises while being linked into wireless portable health monitoring systems.

Design of adhesive conducting PEDOT-MeOH:PSS/PDA neural interface via electropolymerization for ultrasmall implantable neural microelectrodes

Conducting polymers are emerging as promising neural interfaces towards diverse applications such as deep brain stimulation due to their superior biocompatibility, electrical, and mechanical properties. However, existing conducting polymer-based neural interfaces still suffer from several challenges and limitations such as complex preparation procedures, weak interfacial adhesion, poor long-term fidelity and stability, and expensive microfabrication, significantly hindering their broad practical applications and marketization. Herein, we develop an adhesive and long-term stable conducting polymer neural interface by a simple two-step electropolymerization methodology, namely, the pre-polymerization of polydopamine (PDA) as an adhesive thin layer followed by electropolymerization of hydroxymethylated 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT-MeOH) with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) to form stable interpenetrating PEDOT-MeOH:PSS/PDA networks. As-prepared PEDOT-MeOH:PSS/PDA interface exhibits remarkably improved interfacial adhesion against metallic electrodes, showing 93% area retention against vigorous sonication for 20 min, which is one of the best tenacious conducting polymer interfaces so far. Enabled by the simple methodology, we can facilely fabricate the PEDOT-MeOH:PSS/PDA interface onto ultrasmall Pt-Ir wire microelectrodes (diameter: 10 μm). The modified microelectrodes display two orders of magnitude lower impedance than commercial products, and also superior long-term stability to previous reports with high charge injection capacity retention up to 99.5% upon 10,000,000 biphasic input pulse cycles. With these findings, such a simple methodology, together with the fabricated high-performance and stable neural interface, can potentially provide a powerful tool for both advanced neuroscience researches and cutting-edge clinical applications like brain-controlled intelligence.