A Wearable Wireless Monitoring System for the Detection of Pulmonary Edema

In this paper we investigate the feasibility of a simple wearable system that can be used at home to detect or monitor excess fluid buildup in the lungs. This is a medical condition referred to as pulmonary edema. A methodology has been developed to computationally emulate human lungs with various levels of fluid in the alveoli. The proposed wearable system is composed of several small wearable antennas located on the chest and back area. The antennas will operate at MedRadio frequency band and will be optimized for signal penetration through the body. The frequency and time responses of the communication channel between these antennas for the lung models with varying levels of fluid have been measured and analyzed. The results show a correlation between the channel response and the level of fluids inside the lungs. This correlation can potentially be exploited by a simple wearable system to predict the onset of pulmonary edema for patients living in remote areas or people who need to be continuously monitored.