Defibrillator garment detects and corrects abnormal heartbeat

The students said their design improves upon a wearable defibrillator system that is already in use. The students further claim in a statement that their design could help persuade patients at risk of sudden cardiac arrest to wear the system for extended periods.

‘In two studies, up to 20 per cent of patients who received the defibrillator garment that’s already available did not keep it on all the time because of comfort and appearance issues, problems sleeping in it, and frequent ‘maintenance alarms,’ which occur when the device does not get a good signal from sensors on the patient’s skin,’ said Sandya Subramanian, a Johns Hopkins junior who led the undergraduate team that built the new prototype. ‘We set out to address these issues.’

Wearable defibrillators, resting against the skin, are designed to detect arrhythmia, an irregular heart rhythm that can cause death in minutes if it is not stopped by controlled jolts of electricity. People who face this higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest include patients who have undergone open-heart surgery and those who have recently survived a heart attack.