title: Controlling the release from silver electrodes by titanium adlayers for health monitoring.
abstract: Beside cancer, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths worldwide. For medical diagnosis electrocardiography (ECG) is only a powerful predicting tool if the sensed cardiac cycle involves a high signal to noise ratio and reduced artefacts over a long term. The interface of the electrodes to the biological system is therefore improved with a novel textile system. The textile fiber therein is a 100nm silver-coated yarn to improve the signal quality and the reliability of the ECG signals. Long term diagnosis involves a silver release to the applied tissue surface. It is known, that a high silver release can cause a cytotoxic effect on human cells. To prevent cytotoxicity but still enabling good electrical conductivity accompanied by positive antibacterial properties of silver we developed a nanoscaled TiOx adlayer. The biological and electrical properties of these novel electrode systems are investigated and described in the manuscript.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The detection of cardiovascular disease using electrocardiography (ECG) usually involves the attachment of electrodes on the skin. In this paper, the authors here described a novel textile system using silver-coated yarn, to provide the interface of the electrodes to the biological system. To prevent sustained high silver release that may lead to cytotoxicity, a nanoscaled TiOx adlayer was developed and added to the novel textile electrode.
authors: Laboratory for Advanced Fibers, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland. Electronic address: martin.amberg@empa.ch.
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Amberg
authors: Laboratory for Advanced Fibers, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Rupper
authors: Laboratory for Advanced Fibers, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors: Raphael
authors: R
authors: Storchenegger
authors: Laboratory for Protection and Physiology, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Weder
authors: Laboratory for Advanced Fibers, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors: Dirk
authors: D
authors: Hegemann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations / Q000494:pharmacology; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D012834:Silver / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013784:Textiles; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D012834:Silver; D014025:Titanium
keywords: Body electrodes; Care/health monitoring; Cytotoxicity; Diffusion barrier; Silver release