There’s a theory hanging around that smart shirts may someday replace traditional laboratory equipment to measure lung function.
Of course, professional and amateur athletes already know about smart shirts. Hexoskin,1 the self-proclaimed creator of the world’s first biometric smart shirt, describes their garment as sensor-embedded to allow real time monitoring and recording of heart rate, breathing volume, breathing rate, activity intensity level, and sleep vitals.
It’s regarded by many as a sweet alternative to heart rate monitors. The fact that data is sent and stored in secure apps – for athletes and trainers to review – is a nice benefit.
Smart shirt technology recently went off-label – or we should say off track and field – to see if the garment might benefit those with COPD or other respiratory conditions. During the September 2019 European Respiratory Society International Congress, in Madrid, Spain, Denise Mannée, a technical physician and PhD candidate at Radboud University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, presented Tidal Volumes During Tasks of Daily Living Measured With a Smart Shirt.2
According to the presentation, 15 healthy persons – without a respiratory disease – donned a smart shirt as well as traditional monitoring equipment that included a backpack and facemask. Participants moved through a range of everyday activities in order to measure lung and abdomen function. Smart shirt and traditional equipment measurements were darn near identical.
These results spurred researchers on. They are now testing smart shirts to monitor patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If the concept works, a smart shirt would provide an accurate and more practical alternative to measure lung function. Even more important, doctors may soon be able to monitor patients remotely, which would allow physicians to possibly identify early signs that a patient’s COPD condition is worsening3 Remote monitoring may also help track and test potential benefits of experimental treatments.
As Mannée explains, COPD symptoms first occur during daily activities, like climbing stairs and housework, although respiration is hard to monitor in these instances. “(Monitoring) is traditionally done in the clinic with equipment such as an exercise bike, facemask, and computer. The equipment is not very practical for measuring everyday activity.”3
There are a few kinks in the system, mostly revolving around smart shirt recalibrations. But the concept itself is attracting a fair amount of attention – from physicians as well as those diagnosed with respiratory conditions.
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