Functionality of Flexible Pressure Sensors in Cardiovascular Health Monitoring: A Review

ACS Sens. 2022 Sep 23;7(9):2495-2520. doi: 10.1021/acssensors.2c00942. Epub 2022 Aug 29.

Abstract

As the highest percentage of global mortality is caused by several cardiovascular diseases (CVD), maintenance and monitoring of a healthy cardiovascular condition have become the primary concern of each and every individual. Simultaneously, recent progress and advances in wearable pressure sensor technology have provided many pathways to monitor and detect underlying cardiovascular illness in terms of irregularities in heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen saturation. These pressure sensors can be comfortably attached onto human skin or can be implanted on the surface of vascular grafts for uninterrupted monitoring of arterial blood pressure. While the traditional monitoring systems are time-consuming, expensive, and not user-friendly, flexible sensor technology has emerged as a promising and dynamic practice to collect important health information at a comparatively low cost in a reliable and user-friendly way. This Review explores the importance and necessity of cardiovascular health monitoring while emphasizing the role of flexible pressure sensors in monitoring patients' health conditions to avoid adverse effects. A comprehensive discussion on the current research progress along with the real-time impact and accessibility of pressure sensors developed for cardiovascular health monitoring applications has been provided.

Keywords: Arterial blood pressure; Capacitive; Cardiovascular; Flexible Pressure Sensor; Health monitoring; Piezoelectric; Piezoresistive; Pulse wave; Triboelectric; Vascular graft.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Monitoring, Physiologic
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*