Development of a smart garment for the assessment of cardiac mechanical performance and other vital signs during sleep in microgravity

Several aspects of sleep physiology in microgravity are still unclear. In the frame of the Wearable Monitoring project, part of the Futura Mission of the Italian Space Agency, we developed a new smart garment (MagIC-Space) for the monitoring of the cardiac mechanical activity and other vital signs during sleep in space missions. The system is composed of 4 components: 1) a sensorized vest, including textile sensors for the detection of ECG and respiratory frequency, 2) an electronic module, collecting data from the vest and including two accelerometers for the seismocardiogram measure, from which indexes of cardiac mechanics are derived on a beat-to-beat basis, 3) an external probe for the assessment of the thorax skin temperature, and 4) a battery unit for the system power supply. From January till June 2015 seven inflight sleep recordings were made aboard the International Space Station by using two MagIC-Space systems. Data were collected to investigate the cardiovascular effects of microgravity during sleep. The positive performance aboard and the good quality of the recorded signals (>96% of the collected data could be used for the subsequent analyses), validate the proposed system architecture and support its possible exploitation in future flights and on Earth.