Executive Summary : | More and more home-use biomedical systems are being developed, especially for long term procedures, because of their advantages of lower cost, patient comfort, and better blend with lifestyle. The applications of such devices vary widely, from diagnosis and treatment to continuous monitoring of health parameters. Their design requires special considerations for ensuring clinically correct use by the patient, without any clinical guidance as far as possible. To reduce the burden of ensuring correct anatomical location of the electrodes, and of maintaining adequate contact throughout the treatment session, on the end-user, several attempts have been made towards developing textile electrodes using conductive yarns. They further have the advantage of better user comfort (as compared to the gel single-use electrodes which can be allergic on continuous use), improved electromechanical and physical properties, consequentially contributing to improved overall performance. However, research in this space has been restricted to electrodes for capturing biopotentials, particularly for electrocardiography-based applications. The potential use of such electrodes for providing electrical stimulation has not been explored. Moreover, there is only limited knowledge about their ability to minimize noise in an electromyography-based signal due to motion artefacts, particularly when targeting deep seated muscles. The present proposal focuses on the characterization of multiple conductive yarns, having the potential to fulfill requirements for use in interferential therapy, selection, and subsequent prototyping of the same. Further, it intends to characterize such yarns, having the potential to fulfill requirements for use in bio signals capture from deep seated muscles such as those of the pelvic floor. To do this, we propose to first develop a system requirements specification for defining the performance of such electrodes. Following this, a detailed study of various conductive yarns will be undertaken, and selection and procurement activities will be performed. The selected conductive yarns will undergo a characterization of their electrical, electromechanical, and physical properties. Their biocompatibility and the implications of their long-term use will also be evaluated. The learnings of this characterization will be used to make a final selection of conductive yarns, which will then be used to develop a prototype of a wearable treatment device for urinary incontinence. Knowledge developed from the proposed study and the learnings from it, can potentially be used across a variety of biomedical applications, including electrical stimulation of other muscles, such as in case of chronic pain treatment after surgery, trauma, or for acute and lower back pain, or even rheumatoid arthritis; electromyography-based monitoring of pelvic floor muscles in the antenatal period, incontinence-related exercising and/or monitoring with biofeedback, and so on. |