Smart Medical Textiles With Embedded Optical Fibre Sensors For Continuous Monitoring Of Respiratory Movements During Mri

We report on three respiration sensors based on pure optical technologies developed during the FP6 EU project OFSETH. The developed smart medical textiles can sense elongation up to 3%, while maintaining the stretching properties of the textile substrates for a good comfort of the patient. The sensors, based on silica and polymer fibre, are developed for monitoring of patients during MRI examination. The OFSETH harness allows a continuous measurement of respiration movements while all vitals organs are free for medical staff actions. The sensors were tested in MRI environment and on healthy adults.