A teacher with a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder is helping to develop high-tech clothing which recognises abnormal ECG patterns.
A smart T-shirt with the power of AI could in future detect heart conditions as people go about their daily lives, thanks to research awarded more than £340,000 by the British Heart Foundation, at Imperial College London.
Currently people with symptoms like chest pains and dizziness take home a portable ECG, with precisely positioned sticky electrodes, connected with leads to a waist-worn monitor, which needs to be carefully removed and reattached whenever they have a shower.
Researchers say the T-shirt, which will have up to 50 sensors stitched into the fabric to mirror an ECG, could be far simpler to use.
It is designed to detect rare, inherited heart conditions, as it can also be worn for up to a week, giving it longer to pick up issues, compared to portable ECGs, which are typically used for 24 to 48 hours.
The T-shirt is being developed with the help of Carly Benge, a 38-year-old teacher from Watford. Carly has Brugada syndrome, which is a dangerous heart rhythm disorder that researchers are hoping the T-shirt can detect.
Because the condition runs in families, her two children, seven-year-old Imogen and Jake, aged 10 are also at risk.
Early diagnosis is vital for conditions like Brugada syndrome because, if not spotted and treated, they can increase someone’s risk of sudden cardiac death.
Carly was only diagnosed with Brugada syndrome – often caused by a faulty gene inherited through families – after her sister, Jodie, was found to have the same condition in 2018.
Around 340,000 people in the UK have an inherited heart condition which could put them at risk of dying from a dangerous heart rhythm.
It’s estimated that 12 young people under 35 die because of these conditions in the UK each week.
Inherited heart conditions can also cause symptoms such as breathlessness or fainting during day-to-day activities like driving or exercising. However, diagnosing these conditions in hospital can be difficult, as heart rhythm tests and heart scans often appear completely normal.
The smart T-shirt project, led by Zachary Whinnett, Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College London, could provide a new method of diagnosis. Researchers will train the AI using data from more than 1,000 people – some with inherited heart rhythm conditions and others without – to teach the algorithm to recognise abnormal ECG patterns.
A smart T-shirt will be given to 200 patients and volunteers attending Hammersmith Hospital’s Peart-Rose Research Unit – a state-of-the-art cardiovascular research unit in London which is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The study participants will wear the T-shirt continuously for up to three months, to measure how well it picks up serious heart conditions.
The T-shirt will be designed using comfortable sportswear-style material which can be worn underneath clothes during daily activities, like sleeping, eating and working. It will have wires within the fabric to measure electrical signals, allowing patients to be monitored for longer periods of time.
Carly said: “You can wear this T-shirt for weeks and even put it through the wash, and then put it back on again, so it’s a lot more practical than a portable ECG.
The researchers hope the technology will be available for doctors to use in roughly five years. While the T-shirt will initially be developed and trialled on adults, if found to be effective, it could provide a new way to make heart monitoring more comfortable for children in future.
Researchers also hope to make it available to help identify people with other heart rhythm conditions, such as atrial fibrillation, more easily.
Professor Zachary Whinnett, Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College London, said: “Far too many people die from inherited heart conditions which could be treated if they were identified earlier.
“One of the challenges of diagnosis today is that irregular heart rhythms may not always occur during routine 10- minute hospital ECGs or even 48-hour ECG monitoring at home. We hope our AI-assisted t-shirt will provide a practical and comfortable solution, allowing us to carry out longer-term scanning that could improve diagnosis.
“By harnessing the power of AI, we hope our research can transform doctors’ abilities to spot these conditions and improve the lives of those who are unknowingly living with a genetic heart condition.”
Professor James Leiper, Director of Research at the British Heart Foundation, added: “Too many people have been snatched away from their loved ones in an instant by inherited heart conditions. This innovative research will leverage the power of AI to help clinicians unmask these hidden conditions and identify patients at risk of sudden death.
“The British Heart Foundation is dedicated to funding groundbreaking research like Professor Whinnett’s, to help diagnose, treat and prevent sudden cardiac death, but there is still more to do. We urgently need donations to help us fund more lifesaving research to stop families losing a loved one.”
