Platform could be next breakthrough in quest for painless technology to replace in-patient phlebotomy blood draws for many clinical laboratory tests
In a proof-of-concept study, scientists from Israel and China have developed a “smart” microneedle adhesive bandage that measures and monitors in real time three critical biomarkers that currently require invasive blood draws for medical laboratory tests commonly performed on patients in hospitals.
The “smart” microneedle system developed by Israeli scientists from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology working with their Chinese counterparts from the Eighth Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat-Sen University in Shenzhen, Lanzhou University, and Xidian University in Xi’an, continuously monitors patients’ sodium, glucose, and pH levels.
According to a Technion news release, the microneedles are short, thin, and relatively painless because they only extend through the outer layer of skin to reach the interstitial fluid underneath. The needle system attaches to the patient’s skin using an adhesive patch and transfers data wirelessly to both doctor and patient in real time through cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Such a novel technology that allows inpatients to be monitored for key biomarkers without the need for a phlebotomist to collect blood for testing will be attractive and would likely improve the patient’s experience.
It also could reduce the volume of specimen required, potentially eliminating the invasive specimen collection procedure altogether.
The researchers published their findings in the journal Advanced Materials, titled, “A Wearable Microneedle-Based Extended Gate Transistor for Real-Time Detection of Sodium in Interstitial Fluids.”
Leap Forward in Diagnostic Testing and Disease Monitoring
As pathologists and medical laboratory scientists are aware, sodium is a prominent prognostic biomarker for assessing certain blood conditions such as dysnatremia, the presence of too much or too little sodium. It’s an essential element found in blood cells and blood fluid that plays a vital role in transmitting signals to the nervous system, as well as in other biological functions.
Currently, a patient’s sodium levels are monitored using a sodium blood test, which may be included in both a basic metabolic panel and a comprehensive metabolic panel.
Led by Hossam Haick, PhD, head of the LNDB (Laboratory for Nanomaterials-based Devices) group and Dean of Certification Studies at Technion, the team of scientists tested their device’s effectiveness at monitoring patients’ blood for both hypernatremia (high concentration of sodium in the blood) as well as hyponatremia (low concentration of sodium in the blood).
Both conditions can affect neurological function and lead to loss of consciousness and coma. Thus, early monitoring is critical.
“As of now, detection and monitoring of sodium levels in the human body is carried out by means of laborious and bulky laboratory equipment, or by offline analysis of various bodily fluids,” the study’s authors explained in the news release. Use of the smart microneedle patch, they added, allows the patient to continue about their day as normal, as well as gives their doctor time to attend to more patients.
The “innovative stretchable, skin-conformal and fast-response microneedle extended-gate FET (field-effect transistor) biosensor [integrated with] a wireless-data transmitter and the Internet-of-Things cloud for real-time monitoring and long-term analysis [could] eventually help [bring] unlimited possibilities for efficient medical care and accurate clinical decision-making,” noted the study’s authors in Advanced Materials.
More research will be needed to determine whether this latest medical technology breakthrough will lead to a viable minimally invasive method for measuring, diagnosing, and monitoring medical conditions, but Technion’s platform appears to be another step toward a long-sought alternative to painful blood draws.
Further, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should expect more products to hit the market that are designed to collect a lab specimen without the need for a trained phlebotomist. Companies developing these products recognize that recruiting and retaining trained phlebotomist is an ongoing concern for medical labs. Thus, to have a method of collecting a lab specimen that is simple and can be done by anyone—including patients themselves—would be an important benefit.
—Andrea Downing Peck
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