Abstract
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a life-threatening lung disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Although the majority of patients with objective COPD go undiagnosed until the late stages of their disease, recent studies suggest that the regular screening of sputum viscosity could provide important information on the disease detection. Since the viscosity of sputum is mainly defined by its mucin–protein and water contents, dielectric biosensors can be used for detection of viscosity variations by screening changes in sputum’s contents. Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop a portable dielectric biosensor for rapid detection of viscosity changes and to evaluate its clinical performance in characterizing viscosity differences of saliva samples collected from COPD patients and Healthy Control (HC). For this purpose, a portable dielectric biosensor, capable of providing real-time measurements, was developed. The sensor performance for dielectric characterization of mediums with high water content, such as saliva, was evaluated using isopropanol–water mixtures. Subsequently, saliva samples, collected from COPD patients and HC, were investigated for clinical assessments. The radio frequency biosensor provided high repeatability of 1.1% throughout experiments. High repeatability, ease of cleaning, low-cost, and portability of the biosensor made it a suitable technology for point-of-care applications.
Highlights
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a life-threatening lung disease affecting millions of people worldwide [1]
In this work, we aimed to investigate whether viscosity of saliva samples is a proper biomarker for COPD, despite the fact that their viscosity differences are less distinct compared to sputum samples [6,7]
Repeatability values of 1.3% and 1.1% were calculated for Microfluidic Viscometer-Rheometer-on-Chip (m-VROC) and the biosensor, respectively
Summary
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a life-threatening lung disease affecting millions of people worldwide [1]. It has been predicted that COPD will be the third leading cause of death in developed countries by 2030 [1]. Many cases of COPD are considered to be treatable, early diagnosis is the key factor in their effective prevention and control [3]. COPD is an umbrella term describing chronic lung diseases that cause airflow constraints in lungs. The main symptoms of COPD are breathlessness, chronic cough, and abnormal sputum production [2]. Analyzing lung capacity of patients using a spirometer is the most common and rudimentary method for diagnosing COPD. The sputum produced by lungs mainly consists of mucin, water, epithelial cells of the airway mucosa, and salts
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