Physiological monitoring in firefighter ensembles: Wearable plethysmographic sensor vest versus standard equipment

We evaluated the accuracy of a wearable sensor vest for real-time monitoring of physiological responses to treadmill exercise. Ten subjects in standard firefighter ensembles, treadmill exercising at 50% VO₂ max, had heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), skin temperature (T_sk), oxygen saturation (SaO₂), tidal volume (V_T), and minute ventilation (V_E) recorded concurrently by a wearable plethysmographic sensor vest and standard laboratory physiological monitoring equipment for comparison. A high degree of correlation was noted for most of the measured variables [HR (r = 0.99), RR (r = 0.98), T_sk (r = 0.98), E (r = 0.88), and SaO₂ (r = 0.79)]. V_T (r = 0.60) had a moderate correlation, although a paired differences analysis showed a mean paired difference of –0.03 L. This mean paired difference represents a 1.92% variation for V_T. Data from the wearable sensor vest is comparable to data captured from standard laboratory physiological monitoring equipment on subjects wearing standard firefighter ensembles while exercising at a moderate work rate. This study demonstrates the accuracy of the wearable sensor technology for these physiological parameters under these conditions and suggests that it could be useful for actual field studies of firefighters in traditional firefighting gear.