types of EEG / ECG electrodes

Sotiris1Sotiris1 greece
edited June 2021 in Electrodes

I am currently an undergraduate student at the Democritus University of Thrace in Greece performing my dissertation thesis in the field of biomedicine. For this purpose, my colleagues and I, would like to develop a system of wearable sensors that will enable the continuous monitoring of vital biomedical parameters such as the body temperature, the blood pressure, the saturation of oxygen in blood, the hearth rhythm, as well as the electrocardiogram.

Based on past projects, I have in my disposal the products, but I do not know for sure if this is the appropriate for the conduction of the system as described above. To a greater level of detail, I have already the following products:

ADS1293EVM
TIVATM C SERIES TM4C123G LaunchPad Evaluation Kit EK-TM4C123GXL
LMT70EVM (Temperature Sensor)

I will supply ADS1299, which is suitable as the AFE for the EEG and ECG applications. After searching I have found the electrodes that I will need for the ECG measurements, so I would like you to help me regarding the electrodes for the EEG measurements, which one do you suggest ??

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Sotiris, hi.

    Take a look at this Kickstarter project, it already does many of the measurements you want.

    https://www.emotibit.com/

    Regarding EEG electrodes, there are a range available:

    • cup electrodes, using paste to attach to scalp; see the Shop page
    • gel electrodes, use a conductive gel and cap or bands
    • dry electrodes, comb and cone shaped, see the shop page / headbands
    • saline electrodes, instead of gel or paste, these use a saline solution + sponge see MindAffect material
    • ear electrodes, some systems pick up EEG near the ear area using conductive materials
    • etc.

    Regards, William

  • Thank you very much for your prompt response and for your help

    Yes I know that there are many types of electrodes but my question is basically to what extent the electrodes of the encephalogram will be compatible with the specific AFE, is there a case to know ?? or to know who to ask ??

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    ADS1299 can use ANY of the EEG electrodes mentioned. This is also true for almost all other EEG amplifiers. In the case of 'passive' EEG electrodes, these just pass on the microvolts they are reading to the AFE, with no pre-amplification. Of course there is also a 'reference' electrode in all cases, and also a 'ground' connection.

  • hello ,
    Based on the Project I have undertaken, I want to get the cyton bio-sensing board from your company, because I believe it is very close to my project and I believe it will help me a lot. But I have some questions:
    1) If I understand correctly cyton bio-sensing board can measure both EEG and ECG? Correctly??
    For the EEG I will get the OpenBCI EEG Headband Kit, for the measurement of the heart activity, which electrodes and cables should I get ?? (Are EMG / ECG Snap Electrode Cables with EMG / ECG Foam Solid Gel Electrodes suitable ??)
    Thank you very much in advance
    Kinds Regards,
    Sotiris Katsimentes

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    If I understand correctly cyton bio-sensing board can measure both EEG and ECG? Correctly??

    Hi Sotiris, yes that is correct.

    For the EEG I will get the OpenBCI EEG Headband Kit, for the measurement of the heart activity, which electrodes and cables should I get ?? (Are EMG / ECG Snap Electrode Cables with EMG / ECG Foam Solid Gel Electrodes suitable ??)

    Yes, that's what you want.

    Regards, William

  • Thank you very much for your prompt response and your valuable help to my questions. However I would like to ask you one more thing regarding the electrodes that are for measuring the activity of the heart:
    Specifically, do you know if there are electrodes for ECG that are already installed ready in a belt style, such as the headband kit for the EEG that just wants to install the cables ???
    Kinds Regards
    Sotiris Katsimentes

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    ... do you know if there are electrodes for ECG that are already installed ready in a belt style, such as the headband kit for the EEG that just wants to install the cables ???

    There ARE ECG 'chest strap' belts, that are used for heart rate monitors. Especially those used in sports activities. You can find many of these online, Amazon, etc.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=heart+rate+chest+strap

    Most of the products that search will pull up, include BOTH the belt, and the attaching Bluetooth monitor unit. However, any company that sells the complete product, also sells replacement belts.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=replacement+heart+rate+chest+strap

    These straps mostly use 'similar' type of snap connections, as the ECG foam pads. HOWEVER, the snaps are different sizes. The chest strap snap pin (male) is too large to fit into the normal ECG lead wire female socket. I believe it would be possible to make an adapter.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=large+dritz+snap+used+in+heart+rate+chest+strap

    Or... you could just use a simple kludge solution, and use alligator clip leads to grab the male pins on the strap.

    Note in my usage of the chest strap monitors in the past, it was always helpful to moisten the contacts on the belt with a bit of water, before donning the belt. This improves conductivity. You can either moisten with plain water, or with a mild saline solution.

    William

  • Thanks for the prompt reply .

    Because I am quite confused because I have no general experience in designing and operating such systems, I basically want a belt to be worn on the patient or user's body and just connect the electrodes and cables I mentioned above, which will be connected. on the cyton bio-sensing board

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Because I am quite confused, I have no general experience in designing and operating such systems, I basically want a belt to be worn on the patient or user's body and just connect the electrodes and cables I mentioned above, which will be connected. on the cyton bio-sensing board

    I'm not sure I understand your confusion. Such heart rate chest strap belts WILL work. However the snap sizes differ between the belt snaps and normal ECG cables. Large male snap on the chest strap. Smaller 'normal' snap size female on the cables OpenBCI sells. You can make an adapter, by locating the appropriate Dritz snap size (visit a sewing supply store), OR just use spring loaded alligator clips to grab the male pins on the chest strap. I assume you have a technician present for your experiments who could do the attachment between the strap and the Cyton.

    Cyton board uses male 'header pins' at the attachment point for the cables. If you need to attach to these pins with your own cable, you can use what are called 'jumper wires', that have the proper female connector (called Berg or DuPont). For example:

    https://www.adafruit.com/category/306

    To make a longer cable, you can cut one of these (with a female connector) in half and splice in a longer wire. Or splice it onto an alligator clip test lead. Your electronics tech knows how to splice cables, use alligator clips, make an adapter, etc.

    William

  • Good morning,

    I probably did not explain it well because you did not understand my confusion. Generally I want to do a standard ECG with the cables and electrodes using the cyton bio-sensing board. My main problem and question is if there is a belt to place these cables on the body in predetermined positions. For example what I mean is something like what is shown below:
    https://www.readyelectrodes.com/index.html
    Kinds Regards,
    Sotiris Katsimentes

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited June 2021

    Generally I want to do a standard ECG with the cables and electrodes using the cyton bio-sensing board. My main problem and question is if there is a belt to place these cables on the body in predetermined positions.

    Sotiris, hi. The link you gave for the Rapid Pad System looks interesting. Feel free to use that if you wish. The male snaps on those foam stick-on electrodes WILL mate directly with the ECG electrode wires (female snaps) shown in the Shop.

    There is a 5 Lead tutorial here:

    https://docs.openbci.com/docs/01GettingStarted/02-Biosensing-Setups/ECGSetup#5-lead-ecg-with-cyton-board

    However it looks like Rapid Pad is mainly setup for 12-lead. If you need 12 lead you'll have to figure out how that is wired up yourself. My impression is that 12 lead is only offered on medical grade ECG equipment. On the other hand if you look at the 5 lead document link above, you can see that the electrode placements are NOT in a line like 12 lead.

    Regards, William

Sign In or Register to comment.