Fiber Bragg grating-based sensor for monitoring respiration and heart activity during magnetic resonance imaging examinations

We present a fiber-optic sensor for monitoring respiration and heart activity designed to operate in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment. The sensor employs a Plexiglas springboard, which converts movements of the patient's body lying on the board (i.e., lung- and heart-induced vibrations) to strain, where a fiber Bragg grating attached to the board is used to measure this strain. Experimental studies are carried out during thoracic spine MRI examinations. The presence of the metal-free sensor construction in the MRI environment does not pose a threat to the patient and has no influence over the quality of imaging, and the signal is identical to that obtained without any electromagnetic interference. The results show that the sensor is able to accurately reflect the ballistocardiographic signal, enabling determinations of the respiration rate (RR) and heart rate (HR). The data delivered by the sensor are normally distributed on the Bland-Altman plot for the characteristic point determination and exhibit clear dependence on the RR and HR values for the RR and HR determinations, respectively. Measurement accuracies are better than 7% of the average values, and thus, with further development, the sensor will be implemented in routine MRI examinations.