For patients under Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) spontaneous respiration is constantly at risk of being impaired by anesthetic drugs or by upper airway obstruction. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the breathing activity is needed to assess adequate ventilation or to detect specific obstruction patterns. The paper describes three MRI compatible respiration sensors based on pure optical technologies developed within the EU FP6 project OFSETH. The sensors are based on fiber Bragg gratings, optical time-domain reflectometry and macrobending effects. The developed smart medical textiles can sense elongation up to 3% while maintaining the stretching properties of the textile substrates for patient's comfort. The OFSETH harness allows a continuous measurement of abdominal and thoracic respiration movement while all vitals organs are free for medical staff actions. The sensors were tested in MRI environment and on healthy adults.
The potential impact of optical fiber sensors embedded into medical textiles for the continuous monitoring of the patient during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is now proved. We report how two pure optical technologies can successfully sense textile elongation between, 0% and 3%, while maintaining the stretching properties of the textile substrates for a good comfort of the patient. Investigating influence of different patients' morphology as well as textile integration issues to let free all vitals organs for medical staff actions, the OFSETH harness allows a continuous measurement of respiration movements. For example, anaesthesia for MRI examination uses the same drugs as for any surgical procedure. Even if spontaneous respiration can be preserved most of the time, spontaneous respiration is constantly at risk of being impaired by anaesthetic drugs or by upper airway obstruction. Monitoring of the breathing activity is needed to assess adequate ventilation or to detect specific obstruction patterns. Moreover artefacts due to physiological motions induce a blooming effect on the MRI result. The use of synchronisation devices allows reducing these effects. Positioned at certain strategic places according to the investigated organ, the presented sensors could constitute an efficient and adapted solution for respiratory synchronisation of the MRI acquisition.