A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager

Hongjie Hu; Hao Huang; Mohan Li; Xiaoxiang Gao; Lu Yin; Ruixiang Qi; Ray S Wu; Xiangjun Chen; Yuxiang Ma; Keren Shi; Chenghai Li; Timothy M Maus; Brady Huang; Chengchangfeng Lu; Muyang Lin; Sai Zhou; Zhiyuan Lou; Yue Gu; Yimu Chen; Yusheng Lei; Xinyu Wang; Ruotao Wang; Wentong Yue; Xinyi Yang; Yizhou Bian; Jing Mu; Geonho Park; Shu Xiang; Shengqiang Cai; Paul W Corey; Joseph Wang; Sheng Xu

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05498-z

A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager

Nature. 2023 Jan;613(7945):667-675. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05498-z. Epub 2023 Jan 25.

Authors

Hongjie Hu^#¹, Hao Huang^#¹, Mohan Li^#², Xiaoxiang Gao^#¹, Lu Yin¹, Ruixiang Qi³, Ray S Wu¹, Xiangjun Chen⁴, Yuxiang Ma^{1

5}, Keren Shi^{4

6}, Chenghai Li⁷, Timothy M Maus⁸, Brady Huang⁹, Chengchangfeng Lu², Muyang Lin¹, Sai Zhou⁴, Zhiyuan Lou¹, Yue Gu^{4

10}, Yimu Chen¹, Yusheng Lei^{1

11}, Xinyu Wang¹, Ruotao Wang¹, Wentong Yue¹, Xinyi Yang⁴, Yizhou Bian¹, Jing Mu⁴, Geonho Park¹, Shu Xiang¹², Shengqiang Cai^{4

7}, Paul W Corey¹³, Joseph Wang^{1

4}, Sheng Xu^{14

15

16

17

18}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
³ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁴ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego Health Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
¹¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹² Softsonics, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA.
¹³ Department of Anesthesiology, Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. [email protected].
¹⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. [email protected].
¹⁶ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. [email protected].
¹⁷ Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. [email protected].
¹⁸ Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Continuous imaging of cardiac functions is highly desirable for the assessment of long-term cardiovascular health, detection of acute cardiac dysfunction and clinical management of critically ill or surgical patients^1-4. However, conventional non-invasive approaches to image the cardiac function cannot provide continuous measurements owing to device bulkiness^5-11, and existing wearable cardiac devices can only capture signals on the skin^12-16. Here we report a wearable ultrasonic device for continuous, real-time and direct cardiac function assessment. We introduce innovations in device design and material fabrication that improve the mechanical coupling between the device and human skin, allowing the left ventricle to be examined from different views during motion. We also develop a deep learning model that automatically extracts the left ventricular volume from the continuous image recording, yielding waveforms of key cardiac performance indices such as stroke volume, cardiac output and ejection fraction. This technology enables dynamic wearable monitoring of cardiac performance with substantially improved accuracy in various environments.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Cardiac Output
Echocardiography* / instrumentation
Echocardiography* / standards
Equipment Design*
Heart Ventricles / diagnostic imaging
Heart* / diagnostic imaging
Humans
Skin
Stroke Volume
Wearable Electronic Devices* / standards

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding