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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2022
Washable and Reliable Textile Electrodes Embedded into Underwear Fabric for Electrocardiography (ECG) Monitoring
Amale Ankhili1,2,3, Xuyuan Tao4,5, Cédric Cochrane6,7
1École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles/Génie et Matériaux Textiles Laboratory (ENSAIT/GEMTEX), 2 Allée Louis et Victor Champier, F-59100 Roubaix, France. amale.ankhili@ensait.fr.
Abstract:
A medical quality electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is necessary for permanent monitoring, and an accurate heart examination can be obtained from instrumented underwear only if it is equipped with high-quality, flexible, textile-based electrodes guaranteeing low contact resistance with the skin. The main objective of this article is to develop reliable and washable ECG monitoring underwear able to record and wirelessly send an ECG signal in real time to a smart phone and further to a cloud. The article focuses on textile electrode design and production guaranteeing optimal contact impedance. Therefore, different types of textile fabrics were coated with modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in order to develop and manufacture reliable and washable textile electrodes assembled to female underwear (bras), by sewing using commercially available conductive yarns. Washability tests of connected underwear containing textile electrodes and conductive threads were carried out up to 50 washing cycles. The influence of standardized washing cycles on the quality of ECG signals and the electrical properties of the textile electrodes were investigated and characterized.
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