Monitoring Congestive Heart Failure using Pressure-Sensitive Mats

Heart failure affects 22 million people worldwide. Current diagnosis techniques are based on a combination of medical history and physical examination performed by a physician. Non-invasive continuous monitoring of patient health and physiology are part of a growing research field. Pressure sensitive mats have been used to estimate force, analyze bed transfers, and monitor breathing patterns during sleep. This paper describes the application of pressure sensitive mats to identify small changes in mass distribution (< 1% of body mass) as a model of fluid retention that occurs with congestive heart failure (CHF). This paper employs a recently developed anthropometric model to demonstrate that the addition of a 100g mass at the ankle, shin, knee, thigh, and bladder regions were detectable under ideal conditions. A number of confounding factors that may influence real-world measurements are discussed. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that pressure sensitive mats may form the basis for a novel non-invasive system to assist physicians in monitoring CHF by tracking associated fluid retention and redistribution over the course of a night.