From wires to waves, a novel sensor system for in vivo pressure monitoring

Pressure monitoring in various organs of the body is essential for appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. In almost all situations, monitoring is performed in a hospital setting. Technological advances not only promise to improve clinical pressure monitoring systems, but also engage toward the development of fully implantable systems in ambulatory patients. Such systems would not only provide longitudinal time monitoring to healthcare personnel, but also to the patient who could adjust their way-of-life in response to the measurements. In the past years, we have developed a new type of piezoresistive pressure sensor system. Different bench tests have demonstrated that it delivers precise and reliable pressure measurements in real-time. The potential of this system was confirmed by a continuous recording in a patient that lasted for almost a day. In the present study, we further characterized the functionality of this sensor system by conducting in vivo implantation experiments in nine female farm pigs. To get a step closer to a fully implantable system, we also adapted two different wireless communication solutions to the sensor system. The communication protocols are based on MICS (Medical Implant Communication System) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) communication. As a proof-of-concept, implantation experiments in nine female pigs demonstrated the functionality of both systems, with a notable technical superiority of the BLE.