A common problem encountered while performing water immersion research, is that water is not friendly to monitoring equipment such as EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, Sp02% etc. What methods of measurement have other researchers used that have recorded accurate physiological data, without interference/interruption, whilst being immersed in water? Does simply using Tegaderm or another waterproof covering help?
I would think about a cardiac pacemaker system that is able to record and send ECG signals in a telemetric way. Of course, I would not build it into the body, but these systems are sophisticated and waterproof enough to suit to your problem.
Hey Morag. Do you happen to know which Polar models can record in water?
We have used Polar heart rate monitors in a diving tower. There were many artefacts but probably caused by interference among divers (WEIST, F., STROBEL, G., HÖLZEL, M., BÖNING, D.: Arterial hormone concentrations during scuba diving with different breathing gases. Med Sci Sports Exerc 44 (7):1267-1274 (2012). DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31824800f3). With sufficient distance the monitors will probably work.
Some years ago, I managed to record EKG from sea lion cubs swiming in a pool. The best way to record that was using small needles implanted under the skin. It was difficult but it was possible. We try several skin electrodes, we even design our own and try to record EKG in humans ussing them, but in the end, water always creep between the electrode and the skin. May be MiniMitter company have some device that can help yu becuse they have several implanted sensors that communicate by telemmetry. Good Luck, It IS possible, don't give up!!
Swimming is an interesting measurement case, because you have
a) arm movement, which will ruin wrist-based optical measurement
b) need for internal memory if you can't get the data off straightaway
c) chlorine or salt water bridging between your electrodes
and obviously
d) the water ruining your expensive devices
I have seen in action, but not used, waterproof Holter monitors. They will probably be a lot more expensive than sports monitors. Polar have water *resistant* monitors , and are supposed to be able to monitor while swimming... I'm not sure how popular they are, though. It is a bit of a tricky one.
Julian Koenig, who is on here, wrote a review on HRV monitoring concurrent to swimming training... from memory, I think at least the majority of these papers dealt with morning, pre-competition, etc. measurements over time. The article is here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24958562
(Please note that above I am just dealing with HR... we are a few years away from an accurate portable low powered ambulatory blood pressure monitor!)
Dear Michael,
Heart rate and SpO2 should anyhow be easily achievable with a few simple modifications of an existing cheap off the shelf finger worn pulse oximeter. Any handy electronics engineer could simply seal off all paths for water ingression with epoxy resin. Fast hardening transparent and water proof epoxy resins like Bison Combi two-components glue would do the job (double syringe epoxy resin, available in hardware stores). The only hard part would be making the battery compartment re-openable, but that might be done using silicone fat.
The photodiode and LED surface itself preferably should be kept clean (those are already water proof) one can seal around those.
If you need more detailed instructions e-mail me: [email protected]
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