Evaluation of printed P(VDF-TrFE) pressure sensor signal quality in arterial pulse wave measurement

Resent article published by Mika-Matti Laurila et al. in IEEE Sensors in co-operation with LFE (TAU), Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology (TAU) and Microelectronics Research Unit (OU).

In this contribution, the performance of an additively fabricated piezoelectric poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) based dynamic pressure sensor in non-invasive arterial pulse wave (PW) measurement was evaluated. Additively fabricated piezoelectric sensors have high potential for the realization of affordable and unobtrusive PW measurement systems which could enable the long-term monitoring of patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, the accuracy and reliability of such sensors have not been extensively studied before. An additive fabrication process is proposed for a P(VDF-TrFE) PW-sensor, measure PW from the radial artery at the wrist from 22 healthy volunteer subjects, calculate clinically relevant parameters based on the PW waveform and compare their values to the values obtained from concurrent measurement with an electromechanical film (EMFi) based reference sensor, used earlier in several clinical studies. Article shows that the signals recorded with the two sensors, as well as the radial augmentation index (rAIx) and the stiffness index (SI) calculated from them, are in good agreement with each other. These results demonstrate that the additively fabricated P(VDF-TrFE) PW sensors can reach a suitable level of accuracy and reliability for clinical use.