Bioimpedance spectroscopy-based edema supervision wearable system for noninvasive monitoring of heart failure

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a complex syndrome in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood containing oxygen and nutrients to meet the body’s demands. HF is the leading cause of hospitalization for patients over 65 years of age. After a patient is diagnosed with HF, the mortality rate is 50% within the first five years. Presently, there are no unanimous diagnostic criteria for HF. Bioimpedance (BI) analysis has been proposed in recent years as a technique to detect one of the main symptoms: changes in body volume due to edema. This research presents a portable device (Volum), capable of performing real-time BI measurements in a low-cost and noninvasive way. The goal is to improve patient monitoring at home to ensure rapid intervention in cases of worsening conditions, either with timely hospitalizations or adjustments to a patient’s usual treatment. Volum is a small, wearable, wireless, lightweight, low-power clinical pilot prototype that takes measurements through four electrodes and sends the data via Bluetooth to an Android device.