Review on wearable and portable sensors for recording of cardiac signals while practicing sport

UNIVERSITÀ POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE FACOLTÀ DI INGEGNERIA Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Biomedical Engineering REVIEW ON WEARABLE AND PORTABLE SENSORS FOR RECORDING OF CARDIAC SIGNALS WHILE PRACTICING SPORT REVIEW SU SENSORI INDOSSABILI E PORTATILI PER L’ACQUISIZIONE DI SEGNALI CARDIACI DURANTE LO SPORT Relatore: Tesi di Laurea di: Prof.ssa Laura Burattini Francesca Ripanti Anno Accademico 2021/2022   ABSTRACT Wearable and portable devices, capable to acquire cardiac signals, are becoming increasingly popular for monitoring physiological parameters while practicing sport given the advance in miniaturized technologies and powerful data and signal processing applications. These measures are increasingly used to monitor athletes’ performances and risk indices for sport related sudden cardiac death. The purpose of this review was to investigate commercially wearable and portable devices employed for cardiac signals monitoring during sport activity. Systematic search of literature have been conducted on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. After study selection, a total of 37 studies were included in the review. The studies were categorized based on the application of the wearable or portable devices in validation studies, clinical studies and development of algorithms and databases. From the analysis of all the 37 studies, it was found that the most recurring device brand was Polar while the most analysed sport was running. Results from clinical studies highlighted that wearable technologies are crucial to improve athletes' performance and reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. At the same time, the need for standardized validation of these technologies emerged. Indeed, results obtained from the validation studies turned out to be heterogeny and scarcely comparable, since the metrological characteristics reported were different. Moreover, the validation of the several devices has been carried out during different sport activities. As for regard algorithms and database category, only one study focused on the implementation of a database instead all the other studies focused on the development of a specific signal processing algorithm using data recorded from the wearable devices.