Wearable belt: monitoring heart failure with sensors

Usually, the solutions for monitoring heart failure are implantable and thus come with the risks of surgery. A research project has now developed a noninvasive solution based on sensor technology integrated into a wearable belt.

Dr. Waseem Asghar explains in an interview with MEDICA-tradefair.com the advantages of a wearable belt when it comes to monitoring heart failure.

Dr. Asghar, why did you choose a wearable belt to monitor heart failure progression?

Dr. Waseem Asghar: Existing solutions for heart failure are implantable solutions including an Implantable Cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and CardioMEMS which remotely monitors changes in pulmonary artery pressure. These solutions are not only expensive but have surgery risks. There is no multivariant noninvasive solution, to the best of our knowledge, that exists to monitor parameters related to heart failure. There are currently 64 million cases of heart failure around the world and 6 million in the US alone. The cases in the US are expected to increase to 8 million by 2030. This increase is due to the unavailability of adequate monitoring solutions. Moreover, not all heart failure patients can qualify for the existing solutions, specially ICD. Only patients with serious heart failure conditions (with reduced ejection fraction) can qualify for the ICD. The rest (with preserved ejection fraction) that make up 50 percent of the total heart failure patients do not qualify for the ICD.

What are the advantages of using a wearable belt for monitoring the heart?

Asghar: The advantages of using a wearable belt over the existing solutions include: It does not require surgery to implant, unlike existing solutions which are ICD and CardioMEMS. It does not pose life-threatening risks involved with the surgical interventions of the existing implantable solutions. It is cheap in comparison to the existing solutions. According to the ICD registry, it costs around $37,000 for heart failure replacement surgery and similarly, it costs around $17,750 for CardioMEMS. However, the wearable belt is made up of shelf components and the most expensive component’s cost is around $39. The overall cost is within 2-digits.

How exactly does the technology in the wearable work?

Asghar: The wearable belt is embedded with multiple sensors and each sensor measures a parameter related to heart failure. These parameters include thoracic impedance, heart rate, electrocardiogram (ECG) and accelerometer for detecting motions of the patient. These signals are read using a microcontroller that processes the data and stores them on a SD card and in the cloud which can be monitored in real time by the medical practitioner. The data can also be visualized in the mobile application.

What kind of data do the sensors collect?

Asghar: The sensors collect thoracic impedance, the impedance of the thoracic region that usually decreases on the onset of the heart failure, electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate and motion activity of the subject. According to the existing literature, these parameters are found to be significant in the diagnosis and monitoring of heart failure.

How can the sensors alert patients and their healthcare providers of possible heart failure?

Asghar: Existing prototype monitors the parameters and shares the results in the cloud that can be accessed by the healthcare provider. Looking at the data, the healthcare provider can diagnose a risk of possible heart failure. One significant indicator in this regard is the thoracic impedance, which starts to decrease on the onset of heart failure due to the fluid accumulation in the thoracic region. The belt helps the healthcare provider in monitoring this trend along with others. We intend to extend the project to automate the generation of alerts whenever the parameters deviate from the regular trends.

Are there possibilities for future expansion to other areas of health monitoring with the wearable belt?

Asghar: Yes, the wearable belt can be extended to other areas of health monitoring, particularly related to cardiovascular diseases and the fitness industry. It has the potential with existing sensors to address daily health-related monitoring but can also include additional sensors to expand its utility to other fields.