title: A biotechnological T-shirt monitors the patient's heart during hemodialysis.
abstract: Uremic patients are characterized by a "pro-arrhythmic substrate." Arrhythmia appearance during hemodialysis (HD) is an unexpected event with a high incidence of mortality and morbidity and difficult to record in patients repeatedly checked using electrocardiogram (ECG). Furthermore the carrying out of this important examination by classical devices during HD is uncomfortable and sometimes stressful for the patient. It may be very useful to monitor the patient's cardiac activity during the whole HD session. We tried to overcome these difficulties using Whealthy(®) (Wearable Health Care System), a wearable system in a T-shirt composed of conductors and piezoresistive materials, integrated to form fibers and threads connected to tissular sensors, electrodes, and connectors. ECG and pneumographic impedance signals are acquired by the electrodes in the tissue, and the data are registered by a small computer and transmitted via GPRS or Bluetooth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lacquaniti
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lucisano
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buemi
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buemi
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003020:Clothing; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006435:Renal Dialysis