In this paper a new generation of dry electrodes for ECG-recording purposes is presented. These electrodes are flexible, biocompatible, biostable and perform a dry signal acquisition without the use of any electrolyte gel or adhesive. Thereby no skin preparation is needed. The material properties allow integration into textiles to form intelligent clothes for long-term monitoring duties. The electrodes can be washed together with the carrier textiles and provide a very good wearing comfort resulting in wide acceptance by the patients. The Department Medical Engineering and Neuroprosthetics of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering developed these electrodes mainly to process the Electrocardiogram, however, in first tests they proved their capability even for other biosignal requirements like surface-EMG. In either case the signal quality of the dry electrodes is comparable to commercial Ag/AgCl gel-electrodes.

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These results show that a fully implantable, centralized wireless EMG system is particularly suited for long-term stable decoding of dynamic movements in demanding applications such as advanced forelimb prosthetics in a wide range of configurations (distal amputations, TMR).

Background/Aims Motility disorders are common and may affect the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract but current treatment is limited. Multilocular sensing of GI electrical activity and variable electrical stimulation (ES) is a promising option. The aim of our study is to investigate the effects of adjustable ES on poststimulatory spike activities in 5 GI segments. Methods Six acute porcine experiments were performed with direct ES by 4 ES parameter sets (30 seconds, 25 mA, 500 microseconds or 1000 microseconds, 30 Hz or 130 Hz) applied through subserosal electrodes in the stomach, duodenum, ileum, jejunum, and colon. Multi-channel electromyography of baseline and post-stimulatory GI electrical activity were recorded for 3 minutes with hook needle and hook-wire electrodes. Spike activities were algorithmically calculated, visualized in a heat map, and tested for significance by Poisson analysis. Results Post-stimulatory spike activities were markedly increased in the stomach (7 of 24 test results), duodenum (8 of 24), jejunum (23 of 24), ileum (18 of 24), and colon (5 of 24). ES parameter analysis revealed that 80.0% of the GI parts (all but duodenum) required a pulse width of 1000 microseconds, and 60.0% (all but jejunum and colon) required 130 Hz frequency for maximum spike activity. Five reaction patterns were distinguished, with 30.0% earlier responses (type I), 42.5% later or mixed type responses (type II, III, and X), and 27.5% non-significant responses (type 0). Conclusions Multilocular ES with variable ES parameters is feasible and may significantly modulate GI electrical activity. Automated electromyography analysis revealed complex reaction patterns in the 5 examined GI segments.

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