A team of engineers from the University of California at San Diego has developed a kind of electronic plaster which can monitor biomolecules in deep tissues, including hemoglobin. This technology gives medical professionals unprecedented access to crucial information that could help detect life-threatening conditions such as malignancies, organ dysfunction, brain or intestinal bleeding, and more.
“The amount and location of the hemoglobin in the body they provide critical information about the perfusion or accumulation of blood at specific locations. Our device shows great potential in close monitoring of high-risk groups, enabling timely interventions at urgent times,” said Sheng Xu, professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego and corresponding author of the study, which is published in Nature Communications. ‘.
Low blood perfusion within the body can cause serious organ dysfunction and is associated with a variety of ailments, including heart attacks and vascular diseases of the extremities. At the same time, abnormal blood pooling in areas such as the brain, abdomen, or cysts may indicate cerebral or visceral hemorrhage or malignant tumors. The continuous monitoring it can aid in the diagnosis of these conditions and help facilitate timely and potentially life-saving interventions.
The new sensor overcomes some significant limitations in existing biomolecule screening methods. “Continuous monitoring is essential to make timely interventions and prevent life-threatening conditions from rapidly worsening,” said Xiangjun Chen, a PhD student in nanoengineering in the Xu group and co-author of the study.
The new portable and flexible patch adheres comfortably to the skin, allowing long-term, non-invasive monitoring. You can perform three-dimensional mapping of hemoglobin with sub-millimeter spatial resolution in deep tissues, even centimeters below the skin, compared to other portable electrochemical devices that only detect biomolecules on the skin’s surface. You can achieve a high contrast with other fabrics. Due to its optical selectivity, it can broaden the range of detectable molecules, integrating different laser diodes with different wavelengths, along with their possible clinical applications.
The head is equipped with arrays of laser diodes and piezoelectric transducers in its soft silicone polymer matrix. “Piezoelectric transducers receive the acoustic waves, which are processed in an electrical system to reconstruct the spatial mapping of the wave-emitting biomolecules,” says Xiaoxiang Gao, a postdoctoral researcher in Xu’s lab and co-author of the study.
“With its low-power laser pulses, it’s also much safer than X-ray techniques that have ionizing radiation,” adds Hongjie Hu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Xu group and co-author of the study.
The team plans to further develop the device and explore its potential to monitor core temperature. In addition, they continue to work with physicians to search for more potential clinical applications.