Stretchable Conductive Fabric for Cardiac Electrophysiology Applications

Stretchable conductive fabric (SCF) is a durable nontoxic textile material coated or blended with conductive metals. Unlike solid metal, SCF effectively conducts electricity with low resistance and maintains conductance when stretched. Thus, we hypothesized that SCF electrodes are more suitable for cardiac electrophysiology applications in beating hearts than traditional solid metal electrodes. Accordingly, we developed a straightforward protocol for fabricating customized SCF electrodes and then assessed their ability to electrically stimulate and record electrical signals from beating hearts. Compared to flexible copper electrodes, SCF electrodes had similar electrical resistance (112.50 ± 25.81 vs 157.85 ± 17.06 Ω, p = 0.09), activated cardiac tissue with lower stimulus strength (27.25 ± 3.52 vs 15.35 ± 2.15 mA, p = 0.0001), recorded stable electrograms with a higher signal-to-noise ratio (20.54 ± 1.09 vs 13.35 ± 1.46 dB, p = 0.04), and were noncorrosive and harmless to cardiac tissue or vasculature. These results support the use of SCF over metal electrodes for a wide range of cardiac electrophysiology applications in the beating heart.