Feasibility of using knitted textile coils to monitor oedema

The paper investigates the viability of utilizing textile coils to monitor geometrical variations in lower limbs, such as those caused by conditions like oedema. The study assesses the performance of four textile coils with varying densities of conductive silver threads, aiming to measure the circumference of body segments through the inductance plethysmography principle. Reproducibility tests show that textile coils are unsuitable for circumference monitoring, probably because of permanent changes in the position of the fibres, leading to substantial variations in inductance, and probably in parasitic capacitances, and hence in the corresponding resonant frequency. Notably, a sinusoidal-shape single loop yields the best results, as validated in an initial in-vivo test. The results exhibit promising potential for the implementation of ambulatory monitoring in both lower and upper limbs.