Experimental validation of an e-textile t-shirt for ECG monitoring

This paper describes a comparative analysis of a new wearable system based on E-Textile electrodes for noninvasive daylong monitoring of electrocardiogram (ECG). The proposed wearable device, named SWEET Shirt, is capable of measuring electrocardiogram signal through an instrumented T-shirt that uses E-Textile sensors sewn directly onto the fabric, making the system non-invasive for the user. SWEET Shirt measurements have been validated by comparing a subset of ECG-derived parameters to that granted by a standard Holter ECG used in clinical environment. ECG data have been simultaneously collected from the two devices used in the study on two male subjects, in short-term (2 hours) and long-term (24 hours) registrations. Passing-Bablok regression and Bland-Altman plots have been used to assess benchmarking. Statistical analysis pointed out great reliability in short-term measurement, while in long-term registration the great number of artefacts aroused in the signal does not allow very reliable measurements.