The development of biosensor technology offers a promising pathway to identifying and monitoring diseases that normally require blood work or other intrusive diagnostic methods.
A new sensor that can identify signs of cardiovascular disease works by testing for molecules related to metabolism and heart disease, researchers showed.
Heart health is a major concern for older adults and their caregivers; cardiovascular issues are very common and require special treatment, the American Heart Association noted.
Although the researchers suggested that the sensor has “broad application value” within “home medical care,” such biosensors could presumably also be used in other senior living and care settings and in other facilities with clinical staff.
“In clinical practice, different instruments and blood collection tubes are required for different metabolite detections, which are time-consuming and require professional operators,” the researchers stated. “This takes up a lot of medical resources and causes a huge medical burden.”
Although it is unclear from the research where, or if, the sensor would be attached to a person, the device would work with “a single sample on a single chip,” the researchers explained, and would test levels of glucose, lactate and cholesterol. By measuring metabolic risk factors, the sensor could help produce a risk assessment model.
Currently, self-management or monitoring of heart conditions is a major unaddressed issue among older adults. Not enough people are using devices such as blood pressure monitors to track their health, one recent study warned.
But the biosensor joins a list of growing technologies that are aimed to make heart disease monitoring less intrusive and quicker than ever before. Several artificial intelligence tools are in development that could help screen for cardiovascular issues.
The research on the biosensor was published this month in the journal BME Frontiers.
