
via Caltech
There are numerous things to dislike about going to the doctor: Paying a copay, sitting in the waiting room, out-of-date magazines, sick people coughing without covering their mouths. For many, though, the worst thing about a doctor’s visit is getting stuck with a needle. Blood tests are a tried-and-true way of evaluating what is going on with your body, but the discomfort is unavoidable. Or maybe not, say Caltech scientists.
In a new paper published in Nature Biotechnology, researchers led by Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering, describe a mass-producible wearable sensor that can monitor levels of metabolites and nutrients in a person’s blood by analyzing their sweat. Previously developed sweat sensors mostly target compounds that appear in high concentrations, such as electrolytes, glucose, and lactate. Gao’s sweat sensor is more sensitive than current devices and can detect sweat compounds of much lower concentrations, in addition to being easier to manufacture, the researchers say.
The development of such sensors would allow doctors to continuously monitor the condition of patients with illnesses like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or kidney disease, all of which result in abnormal levels of nutrients or metabolites in the bloodstream. Patients would benefit from having their physician better informed of their condition, while also avoiding invasive and painful encounters with hypodermic needles.
“Such wearable sweat sensors have the potential to rapidly, continuously, and noninvasively capture changes in health at molecular levels,” Gao says. “They could enable personalized monitoring, early diagnosis, and timely intervention.”
Gao’s work is focused on developing devices based on microfluidics, a name for technologies that manipulate tiny amounts of liquids, usually through channels less than a quarter of a millimeter in width. Microfluidics are ideal for an application of this sort because they minimize the influence of sweat evaporation and skin contamination on the sensing accuracy. As freshly supplied sweat flows through the microchannels, the device can make more accurate measurements of sweat and can capture temporal changes in concentrations.
Until now, Gao and his colleagues say, microfluidic-based wearable sensors were mostly fabricated with a lithography-evaporation process, which requires complicated and expensive fabrication processes. His team instead opted to make their biosensors out of graphene, a sheet-like form of carbon. Both the graphene-based sensors and the tiny microfluidics channels are created by engraving the plastic sheets with a carbon dioxide laser, a device that is now so common that it is available to home hobbyists.
The research team opted to have their sensor measure respiratory rate, heart rate, and levels of uric acid and tyrosine. Tyrosine was chosen because it can be an indicator of metabolic disorders, liver disease, eating disorders, and neuropsychiatric conditions. Uric acid was chosen because, at elevated levels, it is associated with gout, a painful joint condition that is on the rise globally. Gout occurs when high levels of uric acid in the body begin crystallizing in the joints, particularly those of the feet, causing irritation and inflammation.
To see how well the sensors performed, the researchers ran a series of tests with healthy individuals and patients. To check sweat tyrosine levels, which are influenced by a person’s physical fitness, they used two groups of people: trained athletes and individuals of average fitness. As expected, the sensors showed lower levels of tyrosine in the sweat of the athletes. To check uric acid levels, they took a group of healthy individuals and monitored their sweat while they were fasting as well as after they ate a meal rich in purines, compounds in food that are metabolized into uric acid. The sensor showed uric acid levels rising after the meal. Gao’s team also performed a similar test with gout patients. Their uric acid levels, the sensor showed, were much higher than those of healthy people.
To check the accuracy of the sensors, the researchers also drew blood samples from the gout patients and healthy subjects. The sensors’ measurements of uric acid levels strongly correlated with levels of the compound in the blood.
Gao says the high sensitivity of the sensors, along with the ease with which they can be manufactured, means they could eventually be used by patients at home to monitor conditions like gout, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Having accurate real-time information about their health could even allow a patient to adjust their own medication levels and diet as required.
“Considering that abnormal circulating nutrients and metabolites are related to a number of health conditions, the information collected from such wearable sensors will be invaluable for both research and medical treatment,” Gao says.
Learn more: Wearable Sweat Sensor Detects Gout-Causing Compounds
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Wearable sensor
The Latest Bing News on:
Wearable sensor
- Body Sensor Market to Experience Growth Due to Improvement in AI and IoTon January 20, 2021 at 2:18 am
Need for smarter and smaller sensors will dominate the global body sensor market between 2017 and 2022. Thus, a number of wearable devices and an intense ...
- Muse S review: meditation and sleep wearable is no dream come trueon January 19, 2021 at 3:28 am
The Muse S is a wearable that's designed to keep you calm through meditation and the power of neuroscience. You may have heard of Muse before – but the ...
- This tiny sensor could bring blood pressure monitoring to wearableson January 13, 2021 at 7:45 pm
Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor maker Valencell announced a new sensor that can measure blood pressure with a simple touch. The device collects blood flow data, inertial data and combines it ...
- Wearable Sensors Detect Respiratory, Cardiac Symptomson January 13, 2021 at 12:21 pm
A highly sensitive wearable sensor is in development for monitoring heart disease—as well as potentially detecting early COVID-19 symptoms.
- KRONOS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCES NEWEST PERSONAL WEARABLE BIO-AEROSOL REAL-TIME SENSOR TO PROTECT PUBLIC DURING PANDEMICon January 13, 2021 at 9:31 am
KRONOS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,, a revenue-generating, product development and production company that has significantly changed the way air is moved, filtered and sterilized announced today the ...
- Wearable electronics for continuous cardiac, respiratory monitoringon January 12, 2021 at 8:04 am
A small and inexpensive sensor, announced in Applied Physics Letters and based on an electrochemical system, could potentially be worn continuously by cardiac patients or others who require constant ...
- A blood-pressure sensor is the holy grail for wearables. Valencell has oneon January 12, 2021 at 6:00 am
Biometric company Valencell says it can measure your blood pressure from your wrists and fingers and ears with PPGs, truly transforming our wearable devices.
- Wearable Sensor Market 2020 Growth and Forecast Survey Till 2026on January 10, 2021 at 8:33 pm
The Global Wearable Sensor Market is segmented on the lines of its product, application and regional. Based on product ...
- Wearable sensors help diagnose heart rhythm problems in West Virginiaon January 8, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Since early last year, cardiology patients who present at Weirton (W.Va.) Medical Center with symptoms suggestive of heart rhythm problems have been prescribed a small sensor to track their heart data ...
- Wearable Sensors Market Size Set to Witness Remarkable Gains to Reach USD 4,281 million by 2026on January 8, 2021 at 11:55 am
The worldwide Wearable Sensors Market is anticipated to reach around USD 4,281 million by 2026 according to a new research report. In 2017, the consumer segment dominated the global market, in terms ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Sweat sensors
The Latest Bing News on:
Sweat sensors
- Samsung Galaxy S20 FE long-term review: The real flagship killeron January 20, 2021 at 3:28 am
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is a very interesting smartphone. It’s a prime example that Samsung can also make a flagship-grade smartphone and offer it at a relatively affordable price. However, it begs ...
- The Best True Wireless Earbuds of 2021—New Year Saleon January 19, 2021 at 9:30 am
The technology used in each product is the primary defining factor for the quality of the earbud and its price.
- A Navy Experience: 23 Years in the Makingon January 18, 2021 at 7:10 pm
To a gangly teenager from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, with a penchant for science fiction, a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine was the stuff of hopes and dreams. Written is love, war, sweat, ...
- Mysterious Heat Spikes inside Cells Are Probed with Tiny Diamondson January 15, 2021 at 11:27 am
But that single number actually results from each of the 30 trillion or so cells in the human body generating its own heat. The dispersal of that heat sets an overall body temperature, with different ...
- COVID Tester Uses Laser-Drilled, Coated Graphene Sensorson January 13, 2021 at 7:24 am
1). These sensors can detect extremely low levels of specific components in blood, saliva, or sweat. The unit electrochemically quantifies three important molecular biomarkers: The SARS-CoV-2 ...
- Everything you need to know about the new Airpods Maxon January 11, 2021 at 3:02 pm
Fancy Apple's new noise-canceling headphones? Here's everything you need to know about the AirPods Max before you shell out $549 for them.
- Diabetes Monitor Market Overview By Share, Size, Industry Players, Revenue And Product Demand Forecast Till 2027on January 11, 2021 at 2:41 pm
The global diabetes monitor market is segmented by sample into sweat, blood, urine and others; by product type into ...
- CES Liveblog: Smart Home, Workout Tech, and So Many TVson January 11, 2021 at 4:03 am
The consumer tech show is virtual this year, and the WIRED Gear crew is watching all the Zooms to bring you up-to-the-minute highlights of news from CES.
- Biometric payment card first highlights fast start to year of mass adoptionon January 9, 2021 at 10:20 am
Biometric payment cards start 2021 with a bang as Thales, Fingerprints Cards, Idex Biometrics and others position themselves in the space.
- Of Amazon's most popular home fitness products, these 37 are worth the hypeon January 9, 2021 at 3:00 am
If you're anything like me, you find it much easier to squeeze in a workout at home rather than making time to go to the gym. Luckily, there are plenty of popular home fitness products on Amazon that ...