Simple device monitors health using sweat

Researchers from Penn State University and Xiangtan have developed a device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person’s sweat, according to Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, assistant professor of engineering and mechanical science, Penn State.

“We want to be able to analyze sweat from daily exercise or from the sun’s heat because in sweat we have many biomarkers like pH and glucose that will be a good indicator for disease progression or diagnosis,” Cheng said.

The device will be in a patch applied to the skin near the sweat glands. It consists of a small vial containing multiple chambers that has a hydrophobic (water repellent) valve near the opening made of silicone rubber. The channel has a hydrophilic coating that draws water for easy sweat collection. Unlike other devices that require two openings, the single opening reduces the amount of evaporation, leading to longer storage time for later analysis.

Field analysis can be performed using a colorimetric approach where a color-coded analyte is replaced in the different cameras. This sensitive chemical responds to the pH or glucose level and can be read with the naked eye or a photo taken with a smartphone. Additionally, researchers can analyze sweat at different points of time using different cameras, called chrono-sampling.

“The two-valve device is more complicated and requires the use of a clean room technique called photolithography. Our simpler one-valve device can be made without expensive equipment that uses micro-machining,” said Cheng.

The device will be of interest to the healthcare industry, and particularly in athletics, where it can be used to control overheating or to adjust exercise levels for optimal performance. The researchers are also collaborating with a researcher at Penn State Hershey School of Medicine in monitoring diseases. The device may have a color-coded camera for pH, a second for glucose, and a third for sodium, all of which are disease markers.

Their results appear online in the magazine. Lab on a Chip in an article titled “Microfluidic Devices with a Skin Interface with One-Opening Chambers and Hydrophilic Valves for Sweat Collection and Analysis”. The main authors are Yingxue Zhang, co-advised by Cheng and Xiufeng Wang, Xiangtan University, China, and Wang’s student Yao Chen.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hunan Province Natural Science Foundation and Penn State supported this work. A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person’s sweat has been developed by researchers at Penn State and Xiangtan University, according to Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, assistant professor of engineering and mechanical science, Penn State.

“We want to be able to analyze sweat from daily exercise or from the sun’s heat because in sweat we have many biomarkers like pH and glucose that will be a good indicator for disease progression or diagnosis,” Cheng said.

The device will be in a patch applied to the skin near the sweat glands. It consists of a small vial containing multiple chambers that has a hydrophobic (water repellent) valve near the opening made of silicone rubber. The channel has a hydrophilic coating that draws water for easy sweat collection. Unlike other devices that require two openings, the single opening reduces the amount of evaporation, leading to longer storage time for later analysis.

Field analysis can be performed using a colorimetric approach where a color-coded analyte is replaced in the different cameras. This sensitive chemical responds to the pH or glucose level and can be read with the naked eye or a photo taken with a smartphone. Additionally, researchers can analyze sweat at different points of time using different cameras, called chrono-sampling.

“The two-valve device is more complicated and requires the use of a clean room technique called photolithography. Our simpler one-valve device can be made without expensive equipment that uses micro-machining,” said Cheng.

The device will be of interest to the healthcare industry, and particularly in athletics, where it can be used to control overheating or to adjust exercise levels for optimal performance. The researchers are also collaborating with a researcher at Penn State Hershey School of Medicine in monitoring diseases. The device may have a color-coded camera for pH, a second for glucose, and a third for sodium, all of which are disease markers.

Their results appear online in the magazine. Lab on a Chip in an article titled “Microfluidic Devices with a Skin Interface with One-Opening Chambers and Hydrophilic Valves for Sweat Collection and Analysis”.