Portable Sweat Analyzer For Health Monitoring
According to prominent science fiction writer, Sir Arthur C. Clarke "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". And in this article I am sharing with you one such recent innovation which could be extremely useful especially because it is related to health and wellness. When we perspire or sweat, sweat glands in our body release fluids that could be analyzed to determine certain health conditions in human beings. This emerging area in medical science is known as sweat diagnostics. Sweat is mostly water, but still some solutes (minor components dissolved in solvent) are present in sweat which relate to biomarkers present in blood. These solutes include sodium, potassium, ammonium, etc. Researchers at EPFL's Nanoelectronic Device Laboratory in association with a startup named Xsensio have developed a miniature and fully portable system that can examine above mentioned biomarkers in a person's sweat and give some useful insight into his health. The group demonstrated its solution/design in International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) at San Francisco, USA in December 2017. It is low power system on chip (SoC) device that could be worn by the user, it can determine biomarkers in blood like sodium, potassium concentrations as well as body temperature, pH level etc. The collected data will be then sent to smart phone for analysis by doctor etc. Although, sweat analyzing devices are already available in the market but these devices are big in size and require large sample of sweat for measurement when compared to this miniaturized & portable sweat analyzer.
Image Source - Reference 3
The system of portable sweat analyzer includes a fluidic layer that sits between silicon chip and user's skin. These fluidic layers pump minute amount of sweat into the chip, where it is analyzed by silicon sensors. The system uses capillary action, thus it runs continuously and without external electric power. There are four silicon sensors in each chip with each sensor is coated with different material so that varied biomarkers can be detected. This collected data can give vital insights into user's heath like chlorine levels in sweat can give an early indication of cystic fibrosis and this is one of the most prominent sweat diagnostic. Measuring other biomarkers can indicate symptoms of fatigue, stress and other illness. In addition, by depositing different biochemical layers on miniaturized sensors other variables like electrolytes, metabolites, and proteins can be measured. The best thing about this device is that it is fully non-invasive and is a good example of a wearable electronics device that could be used for vital health parameters monitoring.
By: Ms. Parul Datta, Assistant Professor, CSE, Chitkara University, H.P.
References
CLICK HERE to Rate the Article |