You’ve likely seen the headlines about otherwise healthy athletes collapsing, sometimes fatally, during an outdoor practice in the middle of the summer, or even inside a gym in the winter. For football players, who begin practice in August, dehydration is often the culprit, but other illnesses play a role as well, including diabetes and undiagnosed heart conditions.
Now, engineering researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a device that can help prevent these tragedies. The device, which is the size of a wristwatch, monitors and tests a wide range of metabolites in real-time to identify potential health problems.
A replaceable strip on the back of the device is embedded with chemical sensors. That strip rests against a user's skin, where it comes into contact with the user's sweat. Data from the sensors in the strip are interpreted by hardware inside the device, which then records the results and relays them to a user's smartphone or smartwatch.
"The device is the size of an average watch, but contains analytical equipment equivalent to four of the bulky electrochemistry devices currently used to measure metabolite levels in the lab," Michael Daniele, co-corresponding author of the paper, told Laboratory Equipment. “The hardware includes an array of potentiostats and multiplexing systems. This enables the recording of up to 12 discrete working electrodes and two open circuit potential sensors.”
In the proof-of-concept study, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Daniele and his team tested sweat from human participates, monitoring it specifically for glucose, lactate, pH and temperature. However, the sensor strips can be customized to many other markers. In fact, the North Carolina State researchers are already investigating modifying the strips to monitor uric acid, creatinine, electrolyte levels (sodium, potassium, chlorine) and other small molecules in not only sweat but blood, saliva and interstitial fluid, as well.
Since metabolites are markers that assess an individual’s metabolism, the device can not only inform an athlete to an adverse health event, but it can also help tailor training efforts to improve physical performance. Daniele says the technology similarly has applications in military training.
“We're optimistic that this hardware could enable new technologies to reduce casualties during military training by spotting health problems before they become critical," said Daniele. “Both dehydration and fatigue states may arise as variations in the described biochemistry. By monitoring the fluctuations in these biochemicals, there is the potential to predict the onset of dehydration and fatigue, which result in both training and operational casualty. It could also improve training by allowing users to track their performance over time. For example, what combination of diet and other variables improves a user's ability to perform?”
The researchers are now further testing the device on human subjects to determine how it operates in simulated environments and everyday activities.
"We want to confirm that it can provide continuous monitoring when in use for an extended period of time," said Daniele.
Photo: The sensor strip, which sticks out in this photo, can be tucked back, lying between the device and the user's skin. Credit: Murat Yokus/NC State University