Accurate, Rapid Quantification of Cholesterol

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death in the United States, accounting for more than 40% of all deaths, or about 950,000 each year. Statistics have shown that about 61 million Americans, or one-fourth of the population, have some form of cardiovascular disease, which is a leading cause of premature, permanent disability among working adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2003 the cost of heart disease and stroke was $351 billion; the major cause being deposition of fat and cholesterol at the artery wall (atherosclerosis). Many studies have demonstrated that high blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. It is the hypothesis, and motivation of this proposal that a method for accurately and simultaneously measuring the various cholesterol components via a system simple enough and low cost enough for home-care use would represent a significant improvement in health care. Currently, sophisticated cholesterol monitoring systems are quite expensive, while realistically affordable (less than $8000) homecare cholesterol monitors do not provide comprehensive results. This proposal seeks support for the underlying science and engineering necessary for development of a device that can rapidly, and accurately, quantify total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides that are commonly used to indicate the risk of developing coronary heart disease. The technology is based on the magnetoelastic sensor, a wireless, passive magnetism-based sensor platform made of a ribbon-shaped amorphous ferromagnetic alloy. When exposed to an excitation magnetic field, the sensor vibrates, generating a secondary magnetic flux that can be remotely detected with a magnetic coil. Since a mass load hinders the vibration of the sensor and alters its resonance frequency and amplitude, cholesterol monitoring can be realized by functionalizing the sensor with an absorbing coating that reacts to a cholesterol group, or using a solution that induces precipitation on the sensor surface when exposed to a particular cholesterol group. Specific objectives include {1} development of a sensor array that responds to LDL, total cholesterol and triglycerides; {2} development of a sensor reader for simultaneously monitoring multiple sensor elements, as well as an algorithm to translate sensor responses into LDL, HDL, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels; {3} design and prototype fabrication of a disposable cartridge that holds the sensor array.